9t
Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
Ontetrio
Legislative Library
NEW LIGHT ON
ANCIENT EGYPT
t
THE COVER OF ONE OF THE BIG COFFINS IN DAVIS'S TOMB
Frontispiece
NEW LIGHT ON|]|fj
ANCIENT EGYPT"""''
G. MASPERO
MKMBER OF THE INSTITUTE, PROFESSOR AT THE COtLiOE DK FRANCE,
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE SERVICE DU ANTIQUIt£s, CAIRO
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY
ELIZABETH LEE
D. APPLETON & COMPANY f*'-'
NEW YORK
1909
[^// rights reserved]
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I HAVE been trying for about fifteen years to bring
a science supposed to be only comprehensible to ex-
perts within the reach of ordinary men, and it would
be gratifying to find that I have not wasted my time,
and that through my efiForts, some portion of the
general public have become interested in it. I have
drawn my material from everything that can be dis-
cussed with educated people without demanding any-
thing more than a little attention : excavations, religion,
travels, popular customs, literature, history, have each
and all furnished me with subjects. The result is a
** living picture " of the researches made in the domain
of Egyptology during a period of fifteen years. I have
faithfully stated the opinions of others, and have more
freely expressed my own opinions than I imagined I
had, before re-reading the sheets. Recent discoveries
have proved some of them to be true, others are still
doubtful. In the groundwork of the essays, however, I
have made no changes, beyond a few modifications in
the style and manner of expression.
NOTE ON THE SPELLING OF THE
EGYPTIAN NAMES
( Written specially for the English edition)
The transcriptions of the Egyptian names in this volume differ so
materially from those in general use in England that a word of
explanation in regard to them seems advisable. For such barbarous
pronunciations as Thoutmes, Ahmes, RAusorma, I have substituted
Thoutmosis, Ahmosis, Ousimar^s, a vocalization nearer that of the
ancient pronunciation. Some of the vowel sounds,^ like those of the
three names just quoted, are derived from the Greeks, or from the
Egyptians of the Graeco- Roman period ; others are deduced by
analogy with Greek transcriptions from forms the exact transliteration
of which has not been preserved for us by the ancients. The reader
will easily recognize the former in those where I have kept the Greek
or Latin terminations es^ os^ or wj, zj, ous; where those terminations are
wanting, the form is deduced by analogy, or determined in accordance
with the rules of grammar. Thus Amenoth^s (Amenhotep), Khamois
(Kha-em-uas), Harmakhis (Hor-em-Khou) are pronunciations justified
by the Greek renderings ; Amenemhait (Amenemhat), Hatshopsouitou
(Hatasou, Hashepsou) are grammatical deductions. Many points are
still doubtful, and some of the vowel sounds will have to be modified
in the future ; but they have at least the merit of testifying to an effort
towards the truth, and of undeceiving the public who, on the faith of
the Egyptologists, accept as legitimate, pronunciations which would
have been considered monstrous by the Egyptians themselves.
An error is easily corrected when it first arises, but if it is allowed
to persist it is an exceedingly difficult matter to eradicate it. No
better proof can be given than the persistence of the form Hatasou for
the name of the great queen who shared the throne of the Pharaohs
with Thoutmosis III. For the sake of uniformity, I have adopted the
orthography and vocalization of the Grasco-Roman period, in the same
way as in France we use the French forms, Clovis, Clotaire, Thierry,
for the Merovingian kings in order not to introduce very dissimilar
words into our history books. We must, however, remember that the
vocalization and pronunciation of names do not remain unchanged
^ They should be pronounced as in French.
viii NOTE
during the course of history. Not to mention dialect forms which
would be too difficult to determine, I established a long while ago,
partly by means of the Assyrian transcriptions, that many names of
which the tonic syllable is vocalized in 6^ 6u^ in the Greek period, have
the same syllable vocalized in a under the second Theban empire, in
the vernacular of the age of the Ramses : the Amenothes, i. e. the
Amenhotpe of Manethon is Amanhatpe in the inscriptions of El-
Amama. The recent discovery of Hittite archives confirms that
fact, for they give among others, for the Ramses Meiamoun Ousimares
of the Ptolemaic age, a Ouashmariya Riamisha Maiamanou, which
corresponds with an Egyptian pronunciation Ouasimariya Riamasa(ou)
Maiamanou. But I did not think it advisable to introduce those
variants into a book intended for the general public.
CONTENTS
I. THE DIPLOMATIC ARCHIVES OF EL-AMARNA IN
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY B.C. — SUSA AND
THE DIEULAFOYS I
II. THE OLDEST KNOWN EXPLORERS OF THE AFRICAN
DESERT 12
III. THE TOMBS OF THEBES 2 2
IV. NAVILLE AND BUBASTIS 33
V. SYRIA FROM THE EIGHTEENTH TO THE FOUR-
TEENTH CENTURY B.C. AS IT APPEARS IN THE
EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS 42
VI. EGYPT AND THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES . . 53
VII. A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL OF PHARAONIC EGYPT . 63
VIII. THE TEMPLE OF DEIR EL-BAHAR1 • • • 75
IX. A TRILINGUAL INSCRIPTION IN PRAISE OF C.
CORNELIUS GALLUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT . . 84
X. ON AN EGYPTIAN MONUMENT CONTAINING THE
NAME OF ISRAEL 91
XI. COPTOS 97
XII. THE TOMB OF ANTINOUS AT ROME . . . IO3
XIII. A PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN AN EGYPTIAN
AND HIS SOUL I09
XIV. AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF MAGIC OF THE FIRST
CENTURY A.D Il6
XV. ARCHAIC EGYPT 122
XVI. EGYPTIAN BELIEF IN LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS 1 28
j^tVlL THE EGYPTIAN 'BOOK OF THE DEAD' . . . 137
XVIII. EGYPTIAN ANIMATED STATUES . . . . I44
IX
/
CONTENTS
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
v^v.
XXVI.
XXVII.
^/JCXVIII.
JHCIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXI I.
jtXXIII.
XXXIV.
XXXV.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII.
^Xxxix.
XL.
j/^LI.
WHAT THE EGYPTIANS SCRIBBLED ON THEIR
WALLS 150
EGYPTIAN LOVE POETRY 1 57
CAN THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE HIEROGLYPHIC
INSCRIPTIONS BE DISCOVERED? . . . 163
CONCERNING A RECENTLY DISCOVERED FRAG-
MENT OF A COPTIC NOVEL . . . . 169
AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PROVINCIAL TOWN . 1 76
A NEW EGYPTIAN TALE . . . . . 182
HOW AN EGYPTIAN STATESMAN BECAME A GOD 1 89
EGYPTIAN FORMULAS FOR THE PROTECTION OF
CHILDREN 196
CONCERNING A FRAGMENT OF OLD EGYPTIAN
ANNALS ....... 203
MUMMIES OF ANIMALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT . 208
THE FORTUNE OF AN EGYPTIAN GOD THREE
THOUSAND YEARS AGO . . . . 215
THE PALACE OF AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH AT
THEBES 221
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF PROPHECIES . . 228
THE EGYPTIAN ORIGIN OF THE ATTIC DIONYSUS 234
A NEW TOMB IN THE VALLEY OF THE THEBAN
KINGS 241
THE OASIS OF AMMON 248
ON THE REPRODUCTION OF EGYPTIAN BAS-
RELIEFS .... . . 254
THE TREASURE OF TOUKH-EL-GARMOUS . . 260
A NEW TREATISE ON EGYPTIAN MEDICINE . 266
THE COW OF DeIr EL-BAHARI . . . 272
THE TEMPLES OF THE SUN IN ARCHAIC EGYPT 278
CONCERNING A RECENT DISCOVERY OF EGYPTIAN
GOLDSMITHS' WORK 284
THE TOMB OF QUEEN TIYI . . , . 29I
THE PURPOSE OF THE WOODEN TOYS FOUND
IN EGYPTIAN TOMBS 299
INDEX 307
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Cover of one of the big Coffins in Davis's Tomb Frontispiece
Fad Hi pagt
The Audience-Chambers of the old Palace at Susa . „
The Site of the City of Elephantine, seen from
Assouan „
The Pigmy Khnoumhotpou in the Museum at Cairo . „
One of the Walls in the Tomb of Nakhoutti . . „
The Site of the Temple of Bastit at Bubastis during
Naville's excavations „
Pharaoh Thoutmosis II I, from a Statue in the Museum
at Cairo „
The Temple of Hatshopsouitou at Detr El-Bahari after
Naville's excavations „
The Name of Israel on the triumphal Siela of
Menephtah „
King Sanuosrit (Usertesen) I bringing the Oar and
Rudder to Minu of Coptos „
The Barberini Obelisk raised by Hadrian for Antinous „
The so-called Palette of Narmer, a Monument of
Archaic Egypt „
The god Khonsou. Head of a Statue found in the
Temple of Khonsou at Kamak . . . . „
A French graffito from Bonaparte's Army in Egypt . „
A Bas-relief from a provincial school of sculpture at
Denderah „
Amenothes, son of Paapis, a Statue from Kamak in
the Cairo Museum
lo
12
20
28
34
50
74
92
98
102
122
146
150
178
188
xii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Amen6th6s' Oracle in the Temple of Phtah at Kamak Facing page 192
One of the faces of the Palermo Stone, a fragment
of the Egyptian Annals
The Mummy of a Hawk in its Coffin ....
One of the Chairs in Davis's Tomb, with its Cushion
A Girl's Chariot in Davis's Tomb ....
A Bas-relief in the Tomb of Kemnikai at Sakkarah .
A Silver Bowl and a Rhyton from the find of Toukh-
el-Garmous
A Gold Bracelet from the find of Toukh-el-Garmous
The Shrine and Cow in situ at Deir El-Bahari .
The Shrine and Cow in the Museum at Cairo .
The Temple of the Sun at Abousir, from Borchardt's
Restoration
Queen Tiyi
204
208
242
246
258
260
262
272
276
278
294
EW LIGHT ON ANCIENT
EGYPT
THE DIPLOMATIC ARCHIVES OF EL-AMARNA IN THE FOUR-
TEENTH CENTURY B.C. — SUSA AND THE DIEULAFOYS
About the end of the fourteenth century B.C. the
jlations of Egypt with foreign powers were regulated
►y officials attached to the house of Pharaoh who always
xompanied the king in his travels. Some of them are
be seen in the paintings in the Theban tombs, where
they appear as dignified, solemn personages, with the
large wigs and the long pleated white linen cloaks worn
by people of importance. They introduced the Syrian
or Kushite ambassadors, and if the strangers were not
dready acquainted with the etiquette proper ^o the
mdience, instructed them how to cover their faces with
leir hands in the presence of the king, to show their
[read of him by broken exclamations, to rub their noses
igainst the ground, and to approach the foot of the
irone on their knees. They interpreted the speeches
lade in foreign tongues, presented the gifts, and verified
le credentials. They had under them secretaries to
impose the protocols, interpreters and scribes for
irican and Asiatic languages, translators, clerks, and
irchivists. Big terra-cotta jars served for portfolios in
^hich to keep dispatches; these were carried in the
2 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
monarches train by asses, or in a special boat, until, the
business finished, they were consigned to the oblivion of
a lumber-room. In 1887 the fellaheen, who act as guides
to the ruins of El-Amarna, discovered several of these
diplomatic jars in a corner of the palace of Amenothes
IV. They broke them, shared the contents, and sold
them to the dealers in antiquities; three museums, those
of Gizeh, London, and Berlin, possess nearly the whole
find. MM. Abel and Winckler in Berlin, and Messrs.
Bezold and Budge in London published a copy or fac-
simile of the documents; M. Hal^vy turned into French
as much as he could decipher. The lacunae are numer-
ous, the language difficult, and the details of the
negotiations often escape us; but the general sense
comes out clearly enough in the parts we can read with
certainty, and we can gather a distinct idea of the foreign
policy of Egypt in those far-off days.
The form and aspect are very curious. Imagine
tablets of clay varying in thickness and shape between
the size of a cuttle-fish bone and that of a small sponge-
cake. The messenger who carried many of them ran
the risk of literally sinking under the weight of the
state affairs of Babylon and Memphis; the return
journey was much pleasanter, for the Egyptians did not
use such heavy material, and Pharaoh's reply was
written on papyrus. The writing is a variety of the
cuneiform. Chalda^an conquerors had often invaded
Syria during the preceding centuries, and had imposed
their civilization on it. The peoples living between
Mount Taurus and the Egyptian frontiers had adopted
the Babylonian system of weights and measures; they
imitated Babylonian models in arts and in industries,
and adopted Babylonian fashions in dress, ornaments
and hair-dressing. Probably the Phoenicians already
possessed their alphabet, the source of ours, but they
reserved it for their private needs; in their communica-
SUSA AND THE DIEULAFOYS 3
tions with their neighbours or with their Egyptian
suzerains they preferred cuneiform writing. And not
only the Semitic-speaking states practised that cumber-
some method of writing, the Asiatic tribes of the Taurus
and the Middle Euphrates imitated it, and some of their
letters have come down to us, but they have not yet
found an interpreter. The dispatches in the current
language are all addressed to two Pharaohs only,
Amenothes III and his son Amenothes IV, and they
seem to cover a period of from fifteen to twenty years.
A few of them emanate from very exalted monarchs,
kings of the Mitanni, kings of Alasia, kings of
Nineveh or of Babylon, who address the King of
Egypt as an equal, and, according to etiquette, call him
brother. The larger number of his correspondents
are of lower rank, sheikhs, emirs, governors of
towns who recommend themselves to the kindness of
''their lord, their god, their sun." The formulas
gush forth from their stylets, and many of their mis-
sives are merely strings of polite phrases in which no
fact of importance is to be distinguished. They all
make anxious inquiry about the master's health, and
he expands in kind wishes for the ladies of the harem,
the royal children, the nobles, the infantry, the cavalry,
in fact for the whole nation. With such courteous
people Pharaoh could not have been behindhand in com-
ipliments, but we do not know in what terms he couched
them. His replies are still hidden, awaiting the blessed
jtroke of the pick-axe that shall restore them to the light
^of day.
Women were often concerned in these diplomatic
[relations. The unlimited polygamy which then flour-
ished played a large part in political combinations.
[Each sovereign possessed numerous sisters, daughters
ior nieces of whom he disposed at will, and however
full his harem might be, he could always find a place
4 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
for the stranger who brought him a new alliance.
Every time an Egyptian army invaded Syria, its
successes brought as many recruits to Pharaoh's harem
as towns taken or petty kings subdued. The princesses
were reckoned in the ransom of their fathers or brothers,
and were a pledge for the loyalty of the family, but
their position at court was somewhat precarious ; for one
who was privileged to receive the title of queen, a
hundred or more never advanced beyond the position
of secondary wife or of mere concubine. The highest
rank belonged to the daughters of the *' solar" blood
of Egypt, heirs like their brothers, and who often had
rights superior to theirs over the crown; the strangers
came afterwards, and only when Egyptians failed.
The kings of Babylon or of the Mitanni, who knew the
laws of the neighbouring countries, might be reluctant to
accept for their daughters a servitude which humiliated
them and their relatives, but the advantages of an
alliance with Pharaoh were so considerable that in the
end they overcame their repugnance, and one after the
other sacrificed all the princesses at their disposal.
They would have liked to receive in exchange, if not
a daughter or a sister, at least a distant relative of
their powerful ally. But Amenothes III had the pride
of his race, and replied to his brother of Babylon that
" no Egyptian lady had ever been given to a foreign
vassal." Once arrived at Thebes the Asiatics were lost
to their own people; the doors of the women's apart-
ments closed behind them, and no one ever knew
what became of them. If a father or brother made
inquiries, and if he demanded a guarantee of their
existence, Pharaoh sometimes ordered that the ambas-
sador charged with the inquiry should be admitted to
the private part of the palace. The poor man was
greatly embarrassed ; he was introduced to a lady, richly
dressed, and with painted face, who declared herself to
SUSA AND THE DIEULAFOYS 5
be she whom he sought, but he had no means of prov-
ing that she spoke the truth. The brides brought with
them a train of servants, slaves, and scribes, a trousseau,
furniture, jewels, and gold and silver treasure which
assured their maintenance. It was the custom for the
son-in-law to give his father-in-law a present in propor-
tion to the value of the dowry, and he acquitted himself
of this expensive obligation, but without enthusiasm.
It was a case for endless recrimination ; whatever was
paid him, the Syrian declared that it was not equivalent
to his daughter. Sometimes he refused to accept the
gift ; more often he claimed a supplement by grumbling
letters, or he pointed out with zest the contrast between
Egyptian parsimony and his own generosity.
Side by side with the documents that reveal these
little-known sides of the sovereign's private life, others
)how us the political situation in those parts of Syria
that were under his influence. The Egyptians never
)ssessed a regular empire in Asia, divided into pro-
vinces, and administered by a governor directly
ippointed by them. They occupied a few scattered
fortresses on the strategic routes, but the rest remained
in the hands of the native nobles who had held them
it the moment of the invasion. These surrendered
ifter a short resistance, paid an annual tribute in
jrecious metals or in the products of local industry,
md undertook to fight the enemies of their suzerain
whosoever they might be. With that exception they
:ontinued their former way of life, keeping their
digion, their laws, their customs; they made alliances
^ith or fought each other, they pillaged towns, laid
raste fields, plundered caravans, and robbed or mur-
lered Pharaoh's messengers. Pharaoh interfered in
iheir affairs as little as possible, but they harassed him
mceasingly with their grievances and recriminations.
The El-Amarna find contains about fifty of these terra-
6 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
cotta documents relating to a quarrel between Rib-
Adda, a noble of Byblos, and a certain Abdashirta,
into which other nobles of the Phoenician coast and
of Coelo-Syria were drawn. Both factions implored the
unfortunate Amenothes IV to intervene in their favour,
and so we have now and again the two opposite versions
of the same event. They mutually accuse each other of
treason, of cheating, of murder; they beg the aid of
troops, of ten, twenty, fifty archers, and imply that their
adversary is openly or secretly in connivance with
Pharaoh's enemies, preferably with the Khatis. The
intrigues and disputes in this province offer a faithful
picture of what was happening elsewhere. Fighting
was going on from one end of the territory to the other,
and peace no more reigned among the vassals of the
king of Egypt than it did among the nobles of mediaeval
France in the eleventh century. It is to be noted that
a large number of the names mentioned in the Old
Testament or by classical geographers are mentioned in
these inscriptions. Tyre, Sidon, Berytes, Accho, Damas-
cus, Gaza, even Jerusalem. I need scarcely emphasize
what deep interest this authentic collection of letters
written by inhabitants of Canaan more than a century
before the entry of the Hebrews into the Promised Land
possesses in relation to biblical criticism.
All who have admired the archers of Susa in the
Louvre will be glad to see them again in the coloured
plates with which M. Dujardin has adorned M. Dieu-
lafoy's work.i Never before have the cold and brilliant
tones of enamelled brick been reproduced with such
exactness and fidelity. Doubtless the impression of
semi-latent life, which is felt in presence of the originals,
is not felt in looking at the copies; no artifice, however
perfect, could reproduce it. It is due to the incessant
* M. Dieulafoy : IJAcropole de Suze, Paris, 1893.
SUSA AND THE DIEULAFOYS 7
play of light on the prominence of the reliefs, and to
the thickness of the enamels; and the spectator con-
tinually increases the illusion by the modifications of
the light he himself unconsciously produces with each of
his movements. When, however, the picture is looked
at at one fixed point, the light does not shift; directly
the light becomes still the appearance of life is lost.
M. Dieulafoy has related elsewhere the adventures
of the mission to which France owes the most beautiful
works of ancient Persian civilization. He is now at-
tempting to utilize the materials he has brought back,
and by their means to reconstruct a history of the
Susian acropolis. The Greeks regarded Susa as the
perfect type of those Asiatic capitals by the side of
which the cities of Hellas seemed insignificant villages.
Its name alone awoke even in the most unimaginative
minds an idea of almost superhuman grandeur and
beauty : palaces panelled with cedar and gold, sup-
ported on gigantic columns; gardens as big as pro-
vinces, in which the deer might be hunted for whole
days without leaving the enclosure; mysterious temples
in which the sacred fire was never extinguished; troops
of women and of eunuchs; the Immortals with their
priceless robes and weapons; a horde of nobles, friends,
relatives, and alone, apart from the crowd, the Great
King, the king of kings, who, with his nod, could set
the world in an uproar, and precipitate Asia upon
divided Greece. The past might be guessed from what
was seen in the present; its masters had always ruled
over a powerful empire, the oldest known after Egypt
and Babylon. The citadel was situated on a lofty
mound of rubbish between two of the numerous arms
which the Oula'f hollows out in the black earth. An
amphitheatre of snow mountains was vaguely outlined
behind it from east to north; in the west the alluvial
plains were spread out, and the view extended over fields.
8 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
rivers, and woods as far as the marshes that divide
Elam from Chaldaea. Whether the enemy descended
from the tableland of Iran or came up from the
shallows of the Euphrates, Susa could perceive his
approach from afar, and had more time than was needed
to prepare a warm welcome for him.
M. Dieulafoy discovered only the ruins of the old
fortress which fell under the blows of the Assyrians;
but from them he has been able to make out almost
the whole plan of the Persian fortress. He patiently
followed the traces of the walls on the ground, he
cleared away the rubbish from those portions which
seemed to offer some interesting peculiarity of con-
struction, and succeeded in reconstructing in imagina-
tion the whole of the ramparts, towers, ditches, and
gates which protected the king's palace. To have a
subject so difficult as archaic fortification treated by an
expert who combines technical knowledge with a true
feeling for antiquity, is rare good fortune both for
archaeologists and historians. M. Dieulafoy rapidly
reviewed Egypt, Babylonia, Syria, and Assyria; he
examined what each of the great oriental nations in-
vented for attack and defence, and the conclusions to
which this inquiry has led him must considerably
modify current opinion. The Egyptian citadels are
conceived for the most part on a plan of the simplest
regularity. The reason is, I think, to do with the
nature of the ground rather than with the engineers'
lack of skill. The inundation which recurs almost on
a fixed day, and transforms the cities into so many
islands scattered unevenly over the surface of an im-
mense lake, makes the approaches very difficult during
several months of the year. It was an advantage for
the inhabitants, but it imposed plans of severe simplicity.
It was necessary that the water should flow along the
walls without meeting any obstacle which should check
SUSA AND THE DIEULAFOYS g
its impetuosity. The slightest excrescence would have
caused eddies likely to menace the solidity of the place ;
the river would slowly but surely have worn away the
ramparts, as it wears away the promontories which jut
out beyond the line of the banks, and one fine day would
have carried them away. Therefore the greater number
of Egyptian citadels form a parallelogram of thick, com-
pact, rectilineal walls, without towers or other excres-
cences. The Chaldasans, who, like the Egyptians, in-
habited lands subject to annual inundations, seem to
have protected their towns in a similar manner. As
far as we can tell up to the present time, they were
regular enclosures of a sufficient thickness to resist the
battering-ram and sapping, but almost smooth on the
outer side, or furnished with towers that were little
higher than the ramparts. To find fortifications of a
more ingenious conception, and more in keeping with
our customs, we must go to countries where the rivers
do not overflow, to Canaan or to Assyria.
M. Dieulafoy has very cleverly restored the aspect
of the Ninevite and Babylonian citadels by consulting
the pictures on the monuments; he then verified the
results obtained on the ground itself, comparing them
with certain facts with which the excavations at Susa
had furnished him. The large Susian towns were sur-
rounded with a triple fence, the arrangement of which
singularly recalls the plans adopted by the Byzantine
emperors at Constantinople. To attack them was a
formidable enterprise, and needed much time, patience,
and tenacity, many men and many engines of war. The
rails were too high for scaling, and the engineers of
lat time were ignorant of the art of undermining the
foundations; they had to demolish and pull down the
ramparts by blows of the battering-ram, or by means
►f metal hooks, to break or burn the gates, and to carry
►n all their operations amid a hail of arrows, stones,
10 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
and heavy beams. The contour of the building was
wonderfully adapted to allow the defenders to kill as
many of the enemy as possible; even when the breach
was opened and the town occupied, all was not lost,
for the keep offered them a safe shelter whence they
could make a long resistance while waiting their deliver-
ance by a succouring army. The fortresses of Susa,
after braving the efforts of the Assyrians, defied those of
the Greeks. Treason delivered them to Alexander, but
none of the generals who attacked them during the
wars which followed, succeeded in entering them by
force, although the garrisons consisted of only a handful
of men. Abandoned by the Parthians and the Sassa-
nides, they were mere heaps of ruins when the Arabs
invaded the country and converted it to Islamism. The
millions of unbaked bricks of which they were built,
decomposed by the sun and half liquefied by the rain,
gradually became amalgamated, and form now a com-
pact mass, which at first yields no trace of the work of
human hands; only those who have prosecuted their
researches under similar conditions will realize the
patience and sagacity required to ascertain the thickness
of the beds of brick, the direction of the face, the per-
spective and intersection of the walls.
Who does not remember the ingenious reconstruc-
tions of the palaces in the Susian Acropolis by M. and
Madame Dieulafoy at the French exhibition of 1889? In
the book before me they fill several skilfully engraved
plates. They were partly audience chambers in which
the Great King deigned to reveal himself to the nobles
of the court and to foreign ambassadors on days of
solemn festival. The restoration is doubtful in more
than one place, and further excavations may extract
information from the earth which will give the problem
a different aspect. But many points are established
with sufficient certainty to enable us to judge from the
SUSA AND THE DIEULAFOYS ii
work of M. Dieulafoy what Persian architecture was.
There is only one type which properly belongs to it,
that of crouching bulls, joined in couples by the middle
of the body and surmounting the capitals of the columns;
the rest is borrowed from diverse peoples, from Assyria
and Babylonia, from Egypt, from Asia Minor, from
Greece. It must, however, be admitted that Persian
architects understood how to construct grand and original
buildings out of those differing elements.
M. Dieulafoy has briefly indicated the sources, and
his comparisons between the coloured bas-reliefs of
Susa, and various Asiatic or Greek works of a semi-
archaic style are most ingenious. Just as nobles and
princes belonging to all the nations that Cyrus or
Darius had conquered, were to be seen at the court,
workmen and artists of every nationality crowded the
scaffoldings; each worked in his own fashion, and
derived something from or lent something to his neigh-
bour, the Susian to the Egyptian, and he in his turn
to the Greek or the Assyrian. The lotus of the Nile
was associated with types of animals from the banks
of the Euphrates, and the Immortals of the royal
guard were draped like the figures on the Lycian reliefs.
Persian art was as composite as the Persian Empire,
and the loans that it made right and left had no more
time to commingle into one harmonious whole than
the various nationalities had to combine themselves into
one people.
11
THE OLDEST KNOWN EXPLORERS OF THE
AFRICAN DESERT
The most ancient explorers of Africa have recently
risen from their graves. They are Egyptians, who
belong to one of the most powerful families of the
country, to that of the lords of Assouan and Elephan-
tine. They lived somewhere about the year 3500 B.C.
— two or three centuries are of no consequence in deal-
ing with dates in the history of ancient Eastern empires.
I cannot say that these explorers penetrated far into the
interior of the Dark Continent, but their expeditions
were long, fatiguing, dangerous, profitable. They in-
spired them with so much pride, and brought them so
many good things, that they desired to preserve their
memory for posterity, and engraved the narrative in
their tombs. In 1892 Schiaparelli copied and pub-
lished the memoirs of one of them, named Hirkhouf.^
De Morgan and Bouriant discovered several others ^ in
1893, equally as illustrious in their day, and as unknown
in ours, as Hirkhouf. The inscriptions are mutilated
in varying degrees, and what remains often serves only
to make us regret what is lost; they prove, however,
that the Egyptians who are always represented as home-
keeping and hostile to travelling possessed active minds
and a spirit of enterprise.
* E. Schiaparelli : " Una tomba egiziana inedlta della VI* dinastia,
con inscrizioni storiche e geografiche," Rome, 1892. (Extract from the
Memoirs of the Reale Accademia dei Lincei^ Ser. 4% at Vol. x, Pt. i.)
"^ Cf. De lafronticre de Nubie d Kom-Ombo^ 1893, PP- M3-599-
«.*rC/t
EXPLORERS OF THE AFRICAN DESERT 13
Elephantine played the same part in ancient times
as Assouan does in modern times; it was the most fre-
quented commercial market of the Soudan. It filled a
small portion of a little island, supported on several
blocks of granite, which had been successively joined
to each other by banks of sand, and over which the
Nile had spread a thick covering of mud. Acacias,
mulberry-trees, date-trees, and dom-palms, either as
hedges bordering the paths, or as a screen in front of
the river, or in clumps in the middle of the fields, pro-
vided shade. Half-a-dozen norias, arranged like a bat-
tery along the river-banks, pumped up the water day
and night, with their incessant, monotonous grinding
noise. The inhabitants did not waste an inch of their
narrow domain ; they managed to sow everywhere little
patches of millet and barley, clover and vegetables. A
few buffaloes and cows fed discreetly in the corners,
innumerable chickens and pigeons roved around
marauding. The ancient town was situated to the
south, on a high granite plateau, out of the way of the
inundation. The ruins are some 872 yards in extent,
and are grouped round a ruined temple, the oldest parts
of which do not go further back than the sixteenth
century B.C. The town was surrounded by a high wall,
and a conduit house built of dried bricks, situated on the
south-east of a neighbouring island, allowed it to open
or close the outlet of the cataract at will. On the east,
.'but separated by a channel about 100 yards wide, stood
;;JSyene on the side of the hill, like a suburb of Elephan-
tine. Marshy pasture land covered the actual site of
Assouan, and there were gardens, vines which pro-
duced a wine famous throughout the valley, and a forest
of date-trees and acacias running northwards along the
edge of the water. The bazaars and streets of the twin
cities must have presented at that period quite an interest-
ing variety of types and costumes : Nubians, Soudanese
14 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
negroes, and perhaps Arabs, rubbed shoulders with
Libyans and the Egyptians of the Delta. On the other
side of the river, the left bank, vast cemeteries offered
one asylum to the diverse races. The tombs of the
princes occupied an irregular line on the side of the
steep hill which dominates the entrance of the port. A
roughly constructed flight of steps of unhewn stone led
from the bank to the entrance of the hypogeum. The
mummy, after slowly climbing the ascent on the shoul-
ders of its bearers, paused for a moment on the platform
at the door of the chapel. The decoration did not
admit of much variety; it was almost entirely displayed
on the outer side of the walls which enclose the bay,
and which is distinctly seen from the streets of Elephan-
tine. A long inscription covers the lintel and the up-
rights, and the portrait of the dead man stands right
and left, as if to guard safely his eternal home.
Mekhou is the first of the nobles whose adventures
are known to us. He lived under Pioupi II, who is the
Pharaoh before the last of the Vlth Dynasty .^ His
cousin Hirkhouf made three successive journeys during
the reign of Metesouphis I, Pioupi IPs predecessor.
Metesouphis I was still quite young when he came to
Elephantine in the fifth year of his reign. There the
chief nomad races of the desert, the Ouaouattou, the
Mazaiou, the people of Iritit, paid him homage, and
their submission doubtless encouraged him to send an
expedition into the district, as little visited then as it is
to-day, that lies along the left bank of the Nile as far
as Derr. His choice fell on Iroui, Hirkhouf 's father, and
on Hirkhouf himself. *' His Majesty sent me with my
father, Iroui, to the land of Amami to open up the road
to that country ; I accomplished it in seven months, and
brought back all kinds of commodities, for which I was
* See inscription of Mekhou in J. de Morgan : Be la frontihe de
V Egypt d Kom-Ombo^ p. 147.
EXPLORERS OF THE AFRICAN DESERT 15
highly praised."^ This was only, so to speak, a trial
trip, in which he served his apprenticeship under his
father's tuition. He soon set out again, and this time
alone. ** I set out by the Elephantine route; I travelled
in the land of Iritit, then in the land of Makhir, then
in Dar-risi, which belongs to Iritit, for the space of
eight months ; I travelled there, and brought back great
store of commodities of all kinds, such as had never
before been brought into Egypt. I travelled through
the territories of the Prince of Sitou, which belongs to
the people of Iritit. I traversed those regions, a prowess
accomplished by none of the chiefs of caravans who had
gone before me to the land of Amami.**^ Returned
home, the king did not allow him to remain long in-
active. ** His Majesty sent me a third time to the land
of Amami ; I left Elephantine by the road of the oasis,
and found the Prince of Amami about to march
towards the country of the Timihou, to make war on
i them, at the western corner of the sky. I accompanied
him against the Timihou, and helped him to conquer
them so thoroughly that he paid homage to all the gods
of Pharaoh. I then won over the Prince of Amami, and
traversed Amami from the country of Iritit to the bor-
ders of Sitou. I found the Prince of Iritit, Sitou, and the
^^Kople of Ouaouit living in peace. I travelled with 300
^^ses laden with incense, ebony, ivory, rhinoceros skins,
leopard skins, and all sorts of excellent commodities." ^
■pgyptian soldiers escorted him, as well as auxiliaries
"rom Amami, and the sheikhs of Iritit had to furnish
liim with asses, oxen, and the provisions needed to
jBbintain the little army. When he reached the frontiers
of Egypt, Pharaoh sent " the Lord Ouni to meet him
with a boat laden with confectionery, good things, and
^ Inscription of Hirkhouf, B, I. 4-5. 2 /^/^^^ g^ j^ 5_io.
3 Idid.f B, I. 10-14, and C, I. 1-5.
i6 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
beer*'^ to comfort him after the privations he had
endured in the course of his travels.
Hirkhouf cared nothing for oratorical developments;
he said what he had to say, baldly, never suspecting
that more could be desired of him than the names of the
peoples among whom he travelled, and a brief list of the
articles he brought back. His bare information must be
supplemented by the testimony of more recent adven-
turers acting under similar conditions. Like the Arab
travellers of the Middle Ages, the Egyptians of the
Ancient Empire traversed the world for the sake of
trade; they set out on their discoveries with a pack of
trumpery wares, and returned from them with bales of
valuable merchandise. It will perhaps be asked why the
rulers of Elephantine, who had considerable troops at
their disposal, did not resort to brute force to cut a way
through the Nubian tribes. They did not hesitate on
occasion to send bands of soldiers to the right or left of
the Valley of the Nile, to the Red Sea, or to the oases
of the Libyan desert; indeed, their incursions into those
regions brought them oxen, slaves, wood, coal, a few
ounces of gold, a few packets of amethysts, or of green
felspar, used for jewellery; they always gained some-
thing thereby, and the royal treasury disdained no con-
tribution, however small. But their armies never went
very far; directly they desired to carry their depreda-
tions to any great distance, the Nubian mountains
stopped their foot soldiers, and the rapids of the second
cataract offered an almost insuperable obstacle to their
boats. They were obliged to lay down their arms, and
to become perforce peaceful traders ; their caravans could
then traverse in safety routes from which their soldiers
would not have escaped unharmed. And Hirkhouf, or
Mekhou, had to act by the king's decree. The objects
chosen for barter were those that had most value in
* Inscription of Hirkhouf, C, I. 8-9.
EXPLORERS OF THE AFRICAN DESERT 17
small compass and were of light weight : small glass
wares, jewellery, coarse cutlery, strong perfumes, gaudy
stuffs which, fifty centuries later, still have charm for
the natives of Africa. They paid for these costly
treasures in gold dust or bullion, ostrich feathers, lion
or leopard skins, elephants' teeth, cowries, blocks of
ebony wood, incense, myrrh, gum arable. Monkeys,
especially baboons, were greatly esteemed in Egypt.
They amused the nobles who chained them to their
chairs on days of solemn festival ; the traders willingly
undertook to try and bring them back alive. The way
was exhausting, the journey interminable ; the asses, the
sole beasts of burden possessed or used in those regions,
could only manage short stages, and it took many months
to cover distances that a caravan of camels accomplishes
in a few weeks. The routes they chose were those in which
wells or springs occur at not too distant intervals, and
the necessity of often watering the asses, and the impos-
sibility of carrying a large provision of water, compelled
Ihe explorer to take tortuous or complicated routes. It
is thus easy to understand that Hirkhouf and his con-
temporaries did not penetrate very far into the mystery of
Africa. The countries that they were so proud of having
visited were not so very distant from Egypt, Amami
and Iritit in the desert, south-west of Elephantine, be-
tween the first and second cataract ; the Timihou, situated
towards the western corner of the sfey, were the Berbers
who peopled the oases. In short, the nobles of Elephan-
tine exerted themselves under the Pharaohs of the Vlth
Dynasty to discover Nubia and the Libyan desert.
The knowledge gained was scarcely more than the
names of races, mingled with marvellous tales or mytho-
logical legends. The Nile had its source in a divine
river which enveloped the sky, and on which the Boat
of the Sun continually sailed, the river-ocean of Greek
tradition; having reached the southern regions of the
i8 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
firmament, an arm was detached, and fell on the earth
in a tumultuous cascade. The point where it touched
our world was first placed at the first cataract, and then,
as geographical knowledge widened, it was put further
south. It is obvious that its neighbourhood should be
inhabited by special races, intermediary between men
and gods. All the travellers who approached it drew
attention to the existence of an Island of Doubles, where
a serpent with a human voice reigned over the doubles
of the dead, and of a land of Manes, the name of which
sufficiently indicates its nature. The last of the coun-
tries similar to Egypt was Pouanit, the land of gold and
incense, which extended along the coast of the Red Sea.
The traders who frequented it purchased objects or
creatures hailing from the fabulous regions of the ex-
treme south; what they sought most and found least
was a particular kind of pygmy, whose name, Danga^
curiously resembles that of several African tribes. The
first Danga was brought into Egypt a little less than a
century before Hirkhouf,under Pharaoh Assi, of the Vth
Dynasty. The pygmy had been welcomed at court as a
sort of buffoon, useful for charming away the sovereign's
ennui by his savage cries and gestures, and, above all,
by a sort of ballet that he performed alone admirably,
called the Dance of the god^ The god whose dance he
imitated was himself a dwarf, with a big head covered
with long hair, a bearded face, and enormous limbs,
and clothed in a leopard skin. He was named Bisou,
and came originally from the ports of Pouanit, early
becoming naturalized in Egypt. Bisou, both jovial and
grim, both warrior and musician, expressed his varia-
tions of temper in warlike mimicry with sword and
shield, or in joyous movements to the tune of the little
* Inscription of Hirkhouf, D, I. 6-9. The Danga reminds us of the
Satyrs who, according to Diodorus (I. 18), were brought to Osiris in
Ethiopia, and whom he attached to his army.
EXPLORERS OF THE AFRICAN DESERT 19
triangular harp of the desert tribes, on which he
accompanied himself.
The Danga of the time of Assi had so greatly aston-
ished the courtiers by his agility, that ever since they
had tried to procure a similar buffoon ; but the species
was rare, and years passed without any success in re-
placing him. The admiration which he had inspired
produced unexpected results. Souls, even those of the
Pharaohs themselves, could not penetrate into the para-
dise of Osiris except by crossing an arm of the sea which
divided it from the land of the living. A magic ferry-
boat undertook the service on certain days, but the ferry-
man did not admit all and sundry of the would-be pas-
sengers : they had to prove their right to embark, and
to answer a hundred captious questions on transcendental
theology before he consented to ferry them across. A
prayer, doubtless composed a short while after the reign
of Assi, when the memory of the Danga was still fresh,
shows us the ferry-boat at its post awaiting the Manes,
Suddenly a noise is heard among the gods and the souls
on the bank; the Danga arrives, and he must be taken
without delay to Pharaoh Osiris, who has sought him in
vain until now, and who expects great pleasure from his
dancing. The ferryman immediately loses his head,
takes on board the soul which gives itself out to be the
Danga, pilots it without asking a single question to the
port of paradise, and puts it ashore at the steps leading
to the tribunal of Osiris, where it will represent the
lalities of the Danga it so cleverly usurped. ^
The ideal thing for an Egyptian explorer entrusted
with an official mission was to come across a Danga,
and to transport it alive into Egypt. Hirkhouf was more
fortunate than many others; during his third journey
he purchased one that the hazards of trade had brought
^ Papi I, i. 400-404 ; Mirinri i., 570-571 ; cf. Maspero : Etudes de
Mythologie et d' Archiologie Egyptiennes, Vol. ii, pp. 429-443.
20 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
to the land of Amami, and which came originally from
the Land of Manes, The emotions of the court were
greatly stirred at the good news, for Assi's Danga was
the last that had been seen there, and the strange play-
thing was only known by tradition. Metesouphis, who
had sent Hirkhouf on his travels, had just died after a
reign of ten years; he took his rest in one of the pyra-
mids of Sakkarah, whence he was not to come forth
until 1881, to exhibit himself to admiring tourists in one
of the glass cases in the Boulak museum, and to show
us what the mummy of a king was like in 3500 B.C.
His youngest brother, Pioupi II, succeeded him, when he
was about twenty years old, and the joy with which he
welcomed the messenger who announced the capture of
the Danga may well be imagined. The council of minis-
ters w^as assembled, the king dispatched a scroll in
which he overwhelmed Hirkhouf with compliments, and
ordered him to bring his prisoner without delay. The
royal missive was later engraved in the tomb of the
traveller opposite Elephantine ! Pioupi II wished to give
his faithful subject a reward so that in times to come,
when speaking of the great honours of which such or
such a personage had been the recipient, it might still
be said, ** They did for him what his Majesty did for
Hirkhouf when he returned from his travels in Amami
with the Danga!** The pygmies were so wild, and fear
of losing them so great, that the government itself
formulated the precautions to be taken against their
escape. " When he is with you in the boat, arrange
to place watchful persons on each side of the boat, so that
he may not fall into the water; arrange that watchful
persons shall sleep at night with him in his bed, and
that they shall be changed ten times each night.'* A
boat of the royal fleet was put at Hirkhouf's disposal,
and all the civil, military, and religious officials of the
kingdom were ordered to furnish him with provisions
The Pigmy Khnoumhotpou in the Museum at Cairo.
ice page 20.
EXPLORERS OF THE AFRICAN DESERT 21
on his way.^ The sands of Sakkarah, which preserved
the mummy of Metesouphis for us, still hide, perhaps,
that of the poor creature who so greatly amused his
successor. The Cairo museum possesses the embalmed
body of one of the favourite gazelles of Queen Moutem-
hait; why should it not be enriched one day by that of
the pygmy favourite of Pioupi II? Nothing is lost in
Egypt, and research there restores not only, as else-
where, the narrative of events, but also the persons of
those who took part in them ; both the materials and the
heroes of history are disinterred from under the ruins.
Expeditions like those of Hirkhouf were frequent, and
produced more lasting results than the capture of a
dancing pygmy, and a sovereign's favour for a traveller.
The peoples frequented by the traders of Elephantine,
through hearing of Egypt, its industry, its wealth, its
armies, ended by conceiving for her an admiration some-
what mingled with fear; they learned to consider her a
superior power, and the Pharaoh a god whom no one
dared resist. When, later, an army commanded by the
Pharaoh himself came against them, they were prepared
to submit; once subdued, they rapidly adopted the man-
lers, costume, religion, and language of their con-
querors. The caravans of explorers did the pioneer
)rk; the soldiers followed them, and formed the great
;gypt which, stretching from Khartoum to the sea,
lied the eastern world for more than six centuries,
'e have seen the same order of events reproduced long
Fter in neighbouring regions in the case of European
ravellers and traders.
1 Inscription of Hirkhouf, D, I. 1-25.
Ill
THE TOMBS OF THEBES
Tourists in Egypt who spend at Thebes the three or
four days arranged by the promoters of rapid travel, see
at least one of the tombs hollowed out in the hills on the
left bank of the river. For this excursion the official
itinerary allows three or four hours of an afternoon
already well filled with an expedition through the Valley
of the Kings, and a luncheon at Deir El-Bahari. Usu-
ally Hypogeum No. 33 is visited, that of Rakhmiriya,
and if only the paintings could be distinguished it would
be one of the most interesting; but unfortunately the
lower records, the only ones sufficiently lighted by the
flame of the candles or of the smoky torches, have been
greatly damaged by the generations of fellaheen who
turned these mortuary chapels into dwelling- rooms.
Travellers come away with an impression of splashes
of colour, spread, as it were, by chance, over dirty walls,
diversified here and there by columns of damaged hiero-
glyphics. The lamentable spectacle usually quenches
their curiosity, and most of them refuse to enter the two
or three other grottoes of a similar kind recommended
to them by their dragoman. Those who persevere find
elsewhere fresher tones, clearer pictures, and scenes
more easily recognizable, but there are everywhere enor-
mous lacunae which hinder them from imagining what
a completely finished hypogeum was like, or from under-
standing the decoration. In order to make it intelligible
as a whole, it would be necessary to transcribe what
22
THE TOMBS OF THEBES 23
remains in each, and, putting the fragments together, to
reconstruct, piece by piece, the three or four types of
decoration most common in the immense necropolis.
The work not only demands time, patience, and self-
denial, but also resistance to fatigue and discouragement.
The members of the Cairo Mission undertook the task,
some with real enthusiasm, others with praiseworthy
resignation ; the twenty odd tombs they have so far
copied are published, and the enormous service rendered
to science can be judged from this small sample.^
Every one wished to have a residence of his own in
the hill of Thebes. The land of the dead, like the land
of the living, belonged to the king and the gods, and
a plot of ground there had to be acquired for money
in the same way as the site of a garden, a meadow, or a
corn-field. The king sometimes granted a well-situated
plot to his servants. If he desired to reward one of
them handsomely, he bestowed on him a slice of the hill,
or had a chapel, corridors, a vault, indeed the whole
dwelling required for a mummy, hewn out at his own
expense. The inscriptions in such a case told how such
a one received his sepulchre by the gracious command
of Pharaoh, and that fact gave him a title of honour with
posterity. The others applied to the gods, that is, to
the temples, to negociate the purchase of an Eternal
Home, and doubtless paid a high price. The ground
procured, they had no need to trouble about the architect
who should utilize it; it is almost certain that most of
the syringes were prepared in advance and already
hollowed out or even partly decorated at the time of
mrchase. The temples had companies of quarry-men,
laster-masons, designers, sculptors, painters who
Jgularly worked for them, and whom they placed at the
^ Memoirs published by the members of the French Archaeological
[ission in Cairo : Vol. v, To^nbeaux Thebaiens^ published by MM.
^irey, Benedite, Bouriant, Boussac, Maspero.
24 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
disposal of their customers. The ordinary tombs were
planned in one way at the same epoch : a straight facade
cut out in the rock so as to allow of a little platform in
front, a low door, sometimes entirely bare, sometimes
flanked on either side by a figure representing the pro-
prietor, and a few columns of hieroglyphics recording
his titles; beyond, a narrow oblong chamber parallel to
the facade; then, opposite the door, a corridor perpen-
dicular to the chamber, or a second chamber terminated
by a niche containing one or two statues, often sculp-
tured in the rock itself. That was the exterior chapel
where the relatives came to bring the votive offerings
to their dead on days fixed by the ritual. It was closed
by a wooden door, which offered slight protection against
malefactors or the curious. The vault proper was better
guarded; it was reached either by steep galleries which
penetrated far into the mountain, or by shafts hidden
in the ground of one of the rooms or of the platform,
in most unexpected places and easy of concealment.
The grants of land were crowded together, following the
strata of the rock. Here might be seen groups of five
or six; there, twenty or thirty in file; isolated grants
were rare, at least in the centre, at Assasif, Cheikh-
Abd-el-Gournah, or Gournet-Mourrai. The hills, per-
forated in every direction, seem to be gigantic hives, the
honeycomb of which suddenly upset in confusion and
exposed to the light of day, brings the half-opened cells
to view. In certain spots the galleries are so close to-
gether that the rock wall which divides them measures
only something between twenty-four inches and eight
inches. The Copt monks, who inhabited them from the
fifth century onwards, pierced or suppressed the partition
walls in order to facilitate communication between the
hermitages. Earthquakes have cracked the party- walls,
the weight of the upper strata has crushed them, and the
ceiling has fallen in. Near Assasif a whole hill has thus
THE TOMBS OF THEBES 25
given way, and several portions of Cheikh-Abd-el-
Gournah appear to be only awaiting a pretext to subside,
through the destruction wrought by the careless work of
men and the imperceptible wear and tear of time.
As soon as the chambers were rough hewn by the
masons, the sculptors and painters appeared on the
scene. The hill of Thebes, unlike that of Memphis, is
not of a compact and smooth consistency which lends
itself to the chisel. The limestone, even in places where
the quality is good, has been split and broken in the
geological ages, and the cracks are filled up with infiltra-
tions of black or red earth ; it often looks like a cake of
puff-paste impregnated with chocolate and encrusted
with enormous raisins of flint. It needed some skill to
manipulate and fill in the cracks and depressions of the
material in order to form a smooth surface on which the
sculptor could work his reliefs; a great amount of
trouble and labour produced only a poor result because
the coatings and slabs of limestone with which the wall
was patched soon gave way and the holes showed
through the decoration. Therefore painting was often
substituted for what sculpture could only accomplish
with difficulty. To render the surface paintable, it
^as merely necessary to spread a rough layer of black
lay or of common earth mixed with straw over the
loor and wall, and then to give it a coat of milk of lime,
>r of white colour. Whether sculptured or painted the
iecoration never greatly varied. The artists to whom
It was entrusted possessed two or three series of pictures,
the combination of which formed the ideal decoration,
it were, of the tomb. The first series comprised scenes
from the private or public life of the dead man, as well
the representation of the crafts needed to keep up a
great house; the second series showed the funeral rites
from the time the corpse became a mummy until the
moment when the gods of the other world, Anubis the
26 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
jackal and Amentit the mistress of the west, took posses-
sion of the mummy wreathed in flowers. Some showed
the ceremonies performed on the statue to accustom
it to receive the offerings and nourish the soul; others
presented to the spectators the different destinies of the
human remains, its journeyings through the regions of
darkness, its struggles against infernal monsters, its
happiness in the paradise of Osiris or on the Boat
of the Sun. Such decoration in its entirety would
have required miles of wall space; therefore only frag-
ments of it are to be found. The Pharaohs, even,
flinched at the expense, and contented themselves with
the most important parts. Rich men obtained some
hundreds of yards, and as the ladder of fortune was
descended, the space became restricted. The ordinary
tomb would comprise only a sort of epitome, always
conceived in the same terms unless the customer or
his family expressed a desire for the substitution of
some particular conception, or some particular picture.
There is not the slightest difficulty in reconstructing the
tomb even in the smallest details : the plates published
by the members of the Cairo Mission would enable a
mason and a painter accustomed to deal with buildings
to erect it, if they so desired, in a corner of Paris exactly
as it was.
The choice of subjects was not left, however, to the
caprice of the undertakers or their employers; it corre-
sponded to the needs of the Theban soul and to the
prevailing idea of posthumous existence. The soul was
nourished on votive offerings and absorbed their sub-
stance at first in reality, and then, when the rapidity
with which new generations forgot the old ones was
perceived, in symbol. The limestone or wooden figure
of an animal or of a loaf of bread, the drawing of the
same animal or loaf traced on the wall of the hypogeum,
and endowed by the prayers of consecration with a sort
THE TOMBS OF THEBES 27
of mysterious vitality, represented for the shade, the
soul, the double dwelling in the bottom of the vault, the
living animal or the kneaded and baked wheaten loaf.
The designer had then to choose from his sketch-books
one of the many motives dealing with alimentation.
Did the dead man desire bread ? The artist would sketch
the field and the canals by which it was irrigated, the
oxen drawing the plough and the sower scattering the
seed; then the harvest, and the reapers, scythe in hand,
cutting the corn, the threshing of the ears, the grain
stored in the granary. The vines were represented on
a panel of the wall at the side, with the gathering of
the grapes, the wine-pressing and the pouring of the
unfermented liquor into jars. The dead man assisted in
these labours in company with his wife, dressed in new
clothes and wearing a new wig as on the days of his
earthly harvests; everything represented in the fresco
belonged to him, and his soul, in contemplating the
representation of the objects, secured their efTective pos-
session. The soul composed its bill of fare from the
pictures with which the tomb was painted, and by virtue
of formulas, the images became materialized to provide
it with food, and yet were never destroyed nor diminished.
Elsewhere might be represented the hunting of the river
fowl or of the desert animals, fishing in the marshes, all
the pleasures which, loved of the Egyptian, not only
afforded him distraction from the toils of existence, but
were also profitable ; the fish were split open, cured, and
preserved in his presence in the picture, and formed a
reserve to which he could turn when he was tired of
fame or meat. The left wall of the chapel sufficed to
►ntain these rural episodes. On the right the master
>f the tomb was seated with his wife, and received
rom the hands of his children the meal prepared
from the produce of his labours and of his excursions
into the desert. The provisions were spread before
28 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
him in bowls, in rush baskets, on small tables, on terra-
cotta dishes, on mats of esparto grass; nothing that is
eaten in Egypt was wanting : grapes, figs, cucumbers,
water-melons, the onions that the Hebrews regretted at
Sinai, weakly cabbages, chickens, gazelles' legs, calves'
heads, cutlets, and scattered among them many differ-
ent kinds of bread and cakes. Meanwhile half-naked
dancing girls turned and twisted on the wall in their
amorous dances, like the almehs of our day ; flutes trilled,
tambourines boomed, the harpist invited the dead master
and the survivors to '* spend a happy day," for nothing
endures in this world, and '* bodies are born only to
live while the gods decree. The sun rises in the morning
and sets in the evening, men procreate and women bear
children," and generations pass away one after the other
without keeping any of the worldly goods they pos-
sessed. *' Forgetting all ills, oh Nofirhotpou, wise
priest with pure hands, think only of the happiness of
the day when thou shalt reach the land which loves
silence, and that notwithstanding, the heart of the son
who loves thee shall not cease to beat ! . . . Obey thy
desires, and seek thy happiness so long as thou
remainest on the earth, wear not thy heart in repining
until the day comes when the impassive god hearkens
not to those who implore from him a longer period of
life. The lamentations of his friends do not help a man
to be consoled in the tomb. Spend a happy day and
enjoy it to thy utmost. For, verily, no man carries
his possessions with him when he dies; verily, no one
who has departed this life has ever returned." ^
The most characteristic example of this type is in the
tomb of Nakhouiti ;^ there is nothing more delicate, more
* G. B^n^dite : " Le Tombeau de Nofirhotpou," M^moireSy V, 529-
599.
^ G. Maspero : "Le Tombeau de Nakhouiti," Mimoires^ V, 469-
585.
THE TOMBS OF THEBES 29
elegant, more coquettish, even, nothing that savours
less of the charnel-house than this little chamber with
its variegated ceiling and its walls covered with graceful
little figures, picked out in bright colours. It is to be
regretted that it cannot be reproduced in colour, and
that we must be contented with a black-and-white print
of the whole and with photographs of the principal
scenes. The other tombs described in the volume belonged
to persons of high rank, chief ministers of Pharaoh,
nobles of Thebes, one of them lord of Aphroditespolis
the Little, between Siout and Abydos.^ They have
suffered terribly, and what has been saved of the in-
scriptions is extremely confused. Rakhmiriya, who
lived under Thoutmosis III, before the fifteenth century
B.C., was pleased to transmit to us, in long orations
the most circumstantial information about his adminis-
trative career; had the inscriptions come down to us intact
we should know how justice was administered at Thebes,
but, as always, the lacunae in the text occur at the
most interesting places, and we remain in ignorance.^
Mankhopirriya, Harmhabi, and several others exercised
functions at the War Office, and presided, each in one
district, at the recruiting of the troops. On the walls
of their tombs bands of conscripts may be seen to arrive,
give their names to the scribes ordered to register them,
take their rations and their arms for the campaign ;
further on, chariots are being made and the horses har-
nessed to them. But unhappily, the design is rubbed in
places, or intelligent tourists have carried off a piece of
the picture, and a half-dozen similar tombs would have to
be cleared from rubbish and described in order to com-
plete our knowledge of Egyptian military procedure.^
1 G. Maspero : " Le Tombeau de Montouhikhopshouf," M/moi'res,
V, 433-468.
2 Philippe Virey : " Le Tombeau de Rekhmari," M/moz'res, V,
1-195.
^ U. Bouriant : " Le Tombeau d'Harmhabi," Mimoires^ V, 419 et seq.
30 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
Elsewhere, Nofirhotpou, having deserved well of Pha-
raoh, is summoned to receive from his Majesty's hands
the decoration of the Gold Collar. One fine morning at
the conclusion of the service of Amon in the temple of
Karnak, the king summons him, and from the dai's
addresses a well-turned compliment to him while a
couple of chamberlains fasten the collar round the for-
tunate personage's neck : he had desired the scene to be
pictorially recorded in his tomb in order that posterity
might not ignore what a great man he was, and thus we
may learn how the son of the Sun conferred honours on
his servants.^ To each of them occurred the excellent
idea of choosing for his last dwelling-place a different
type of decoration, and thanks to that fact we learn the
detail of the ceremonies which accompany either the
laying in the tomb or the annual sacrifices. We per-
ceive in them a singularity and a barbarity strange in
so civilized a people as the Egyptians. A widespread
belief compelled the souls to leave the valley of the Nile
by a fixed road to the west of Abydos. A chasm^ a
gorge occurred in the Libyan mountains by which they
passed first to the Great Oasis, which was one of their
primitive abiding-places,^ and then to the slopes of the
western mountain, to the point where the Boat of the
Sun penetrates the caves of darkness. They all per-
formed this lugubrious pilgrimage; they went from
their town, that is from their tomb, to the entrance of
the chasm, and thence into the other world with their
train of servants, herds, and provisions. The journey
was made by water, and to render it easier the Egyp-
tians often placed properly equipped little boats of
painted wood beside the coffin, and various little figures
* G. B^n^dite : "Le Tombeau de Nofirhotpou," M/moi'reSy V,
496-501, and Pt. V.
^ G. Maspero: Melanges de Mythologie et d* Archiologie^ II, 421-
427.
THE TOMBS OF THEBES 31
representing the defunct and his family. Every year on
the solemn festivals of the dead, especially on that of the
Ouagait, there was dispatched to every one in the other
world a fresh provision of corn, beasts, and servants.
On the eve of this Egyptian All Saints' Day, one of
the miniature boats was equipped, the sails were hoisted,
and after prayers had been said over it, it set out for
Abydos, which it soon reached with its cargo, and with
the news of what had happened in the family during the
year.^
All the rites were not equally innocent. A series of
mysterious episodes, which may be traced in the finished
portions of the hypogeum of Montouhikhopshouf, a noble
of Aphroditespolis the Little, relates to human sacrifice.
The victims may be seen carried on a sledge, then
strangled, and perhaps afterwards burnt with the oxen,
the cakes, and the other votive offerings in a fire lighted
opposite the tomb. Was it an actual fact or merely an
imaginary episode? It is certain that in early times
the throats of the prince's or noble's favourites were cut
on the day of the funeral so that they might serve their
master in the House of Eternity as they had in his
earthly house ; later, real people were replaced by differ-
ent kinds of statues and statuettes, the best known of
which are the stone, wooden, or enamelled earthen dolls,
hundreds of which are in our museums. Scenes copied
from several tombs lead us to think that at the historical
epoch human sacrifice was only a pretence practised on
a statue or on a special person, the tikanou who played
his part in the funerals of the rich, and was strangled
several times a year without coming to much harm. But
it is possible that relatives, more grieved than others,
ished, perhaps, to bestow on him they mourned the
satisfaction of taking away with him to the next world
^ G. Maspero : Etudes Egyptiennes^ IjPP- 132-399 ; cf. G. B^nddite :
" Le Tombeau de Nofirhotpou," Memoires^ V, pp. 520-21, and pi. III.
32 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the souls of slaves who had been actually killed.^ The
Pharaohs murdered the hostile princes they took in
war before the god Amon, and they commemorated the
execution accomplished with their own hands, to the
chanting of the priests, on the walls of the temples and
the faces of the pylons. Human sacrifice was an ex-
ception in their life, but they performed it without more
scruple than the Roman generals who later concluded
the ceremonies of the triumph with the death of the
chiefs they had marched through the city. Egypt, even
that of the Thoutmosis and Ramses, was still too close
to barbarism for the bloody ceremonials to have entirely
disappeared. Time and the advance of civilization had
banished them from everyday life, but they remained
within the law, and no blame would attach to any one
who restored them.
1 G. Maspero : " Le Tombeau de Montouhikhopshouf," Memoir es^
V, 452-456.
IV
NAVILLE AND BUBASTIS
For fourteen years Naville has most thoroughly
scoured Egypt partly for his own pleasure and in-
struction, partly for an English Archaeological Society,
the Egypt Exploration Fund. He has made some of
the most important discoveries of these last years,^ and
has published half-a-dozen volumes which will always
be models for an explorer's book. The progress of
operations is described with absolute clearness and
honesty, the results of other explorers are noted at
their full value, new historical or archaeological facts are
briefly, boldly, and sincerely set forth. Let us add that
I he has in his own family an admirable draughtsman
who transcribes the texts and monuments with a faithful
and vigorous hand. Students have not been slow to ap-
preciate this rare combination of qualities, and they
give Naville a very high place among Egyptologists.
The general public, less sensible of merits that are not
i loudly proclaimed, has ended by recognizing the full
! worth of a man who cares more to do his work well
than to draw attention to it. The name of Naville carries
weight with the public.
One of the characteristics of the man is his eager-
ness to prosecute apparently barren labours that skilled
experts prefer to avoid. In Egypt, as in all ancient
lands, there are sites on which some important find is
sure to be made, provided that excavations are carried
* This was written in 1894 (Tr. note).
33
34 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
on for a long enough time or that there is enough money
to ensure the employment of a large number of work-
men. An explorer must be either awkward or unlucky
to dig unsuccessfully at Thebes or in the neighbour-
hood of Memphis. Such a mass of objects have been
buried there from century to century that a notable
proportion has perforce escaped the depredations of
ancient and modern thieves : the number of chances of
coming upon still intact remains in digging at hazard
a fixed number of holes, might be calculated almost
to a certainty. Other localities are reputed to be very
poor, and attract less attention. What traveller would
of his own free will stay at Tell-Bastah ? and how many
of the thousands of tourists who traverse the valley of
the Nile suspect the existence of Henassieh? Bubastis
and Heracleopolis Magna were, however, powerful cities,
and they supplied reigning dynasties to the Egypt of the
Pharaohs : but the masters of the country wrought
such destruction on them that their monuments are in
fragments, or scarcely visible above the surface of the
ground. The few Europeans who visit them perceive
huge mounds, out of which a few pieces of walls are
sticking, scattered stones, stumps of columns, and the
multitude of variegated fragments that inundate the
sites of ancient cities. The aspect is not inviting; it
offers scarcely any likelihood of furnishing a complete
building, intact statues, or one of the triumphant in-
scriptions that narrate the whole life of a king or the
events of an obscure epoch. To derive any profit we
need all kinds of solid virtues such as most of us acquire
but slowly; in order to find our way about the debris
accumulated by a hundred successive generations we re-
quire great skill in reading the ground, perseverance, tact,
and intimate acquaintance with history and archaeology.
Naville has, as it were, made a speciality of these dis-
couraging localities, and has forced them to reveal to
a .2
'u o
n •—
3 5
(fa ".
'^ 1
NAVILLE AND BUBASTIS 35
him what they had hitherto concealed. He has attacked
one after the other, the Wady Toumilat,^ Saft-el-Hineh,
the land of Goshen, ^ and has found, one after the other,
the Pithom of the Bible, the Onias of the Maccabees,^
the Heroopolis of the Roman itineraries, the fortresses
that the Ptolemies placed at intervals along the Salt
Lakes then in communication with the Red Sea. Tell-
Bastah and Henassieh are the two last heaps of ruins
that he explored in the Delta and in Middle Egypt
before moving his workshop to Thebes, to the celebrated
temple of Deir El-Bahari.
When Herodotus visited it, Bubastis presented a
paradoxical appearance. It had been continually built
and rebuilt on a very contracted site, and had gradually
been raised up while the temple remained at its primitive
level : it was, so to speak, at the bottom of an oblong
basin, the houses running round the rim.* The cat god-
dess who was worshipped there held festivals of a pro-
verbial gaiety, to which people came from all parts of
the valley. Pilgrims, both men and women, crowded
the boats, and the way was one perpetual masquerade.
Each time they came alongside the quay, the women
disembarked with a loud noise of castanets and flutes,
and went to arouse the matrons of the place, frolicking
about and tucking up their skirts in eager rivalry. To
strangers the function did not seem to differ much
from other Egyptian celebrations, 'a procession with
hymns and sacrifices. But during the few preceding or
following days, Bubastis was the scene of extraordinary
^ E. Naville : T/ie Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus^
1 883- 1 884, London. The book reached its fourth edition in twenty
years, an unusual success for a purely archaeological work.
^ E. Naville: Goshen and the Shrine of Saft-el-Hineh^ 1 886-1887,
London. This book is in its second edition.
2 E. Naville and LI. Griffith : The City of Onias and the Mound of
thefews, 1 888-1 889, London.
* Herodotus, IL cxxxviii.
fc
36 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
rejoicings. ** The gods of heaven rejoiced, the ancestors
diverted themselves, those who were present became
drunk with wine, their heads were crowned with
flowers, the populace ran gaily to and fro, their heads
streaming with perfume, in honour of the goddess; the
children gambolled from sunrise to sunset.*' ^ The
inhabitants proudly reckoned that more wine was drunk
in a single day than during the whole of the rest of the
year .2 The fair has emigrated to the neighbouring city
of Tantah, where the Mahommedan Egyptians offer the
sheikh Sidi-Ahmed-El-Bedaoui the same homage of
prayer and disorder as their pagan ancestors gave to
Bastit, the cat goddess. The town, wholly deserted, cor-
responds very well to the description Herodotus gave of
it : the ruins of the houses crown a hollow at the bottom
of which a few heaps of stones mark what remains of the
temple. The aspect is so uninviting that Mariette, after
working there a few days, despaired of finding anything
to reward him for his pains. For a long series of years
Tell-Bastah was abandoned to the mercy of sebakh^
diggers, who occasionally came upon scarabs, enamelled
earthen figures, jewellery, and, lastly, the thousands of
bronze cats which appeared on the market from 1880 to
1890. Such excavations convinced Naville that deeper
down more ancient debris would be found than had been
hitherto believed; he resolutely set to work, and two
laborious campaigns sufficed to lay bare the levellings
of the temple.
At first sight it did not seem to offer much : not a
wall, a column, or a statue was intact. Everywhere there
lay enormous stones worked on each face with car-
touches, emblems, mutilated figures, broken portions of
^ Diimichen : Bauurkunden der Tempelanlagen von Dandera^ p. 21. i
* Herodotus, II. Ix.
' The saline dust of decomposing bricks used by the fellaheen as
manure.
NAVILLE AND BUBASTIS 37
texts. The materials had been employed over and over
again in those far-off times, and the face, already in-
scribed, was turned round so that new kings might be
commemorated on the other side. It was easy to see
that the temple had been rebuilt by Cheops and
Chephren, the most illustrious Pharaohs of the IVth
Dynasty; that those of the Xllth had enlarged and
restored it; that, half-destroyed in the times of the
Shepherd Kings, the conquerors of the XlXth Dynasty
had lavishly repaired it, and lastly, the XXIInd Dynasty,
native to the place, greatly extended the buildings.
But when its history was thus determined, what means
was there of reconstructing the different buildings in
imagination and of piecing together the decoration that
covered their surfaces? Naville turned the blocks
strewn over the ground on all sides, and copied them
in detail; then he put all the copies together, and with
patience succeeded in combining the fragments so as
to restore figures, scenes, inscriptions, sometimes whole
panels. It is necessary to have oneself undertaken a
similar task to understand the great effort and the
amount of work that the two years of his life at Bubastis
cost him. Two volumes contain the definite result : the
first gives the general description of the temple ; ^ the
second the theoretical reconstruction of a courtyard and
of a monumental door on which festivals of a particular
kind were represented.^ The work is so far unique in
Egyptology; the material is so vast, and the workmen
so few, that temples as ruined and defaced as that of
Bubastis have nearly always been neglected. Build-
ings are preferred which are more easily attacked and
the ruins of which preserve a continuous context. But
the fellaheen break the stones in order to make them
^ Bubastis^ 1 889-1 890, with fifty-four plates and plans.
^ The Festival Hall of Osorkon II in the Great Temple of Bubastis,
with thirty-nine plates.
38 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
into lime or to sell the pieces to tourists. Many monu
ments valuable for history and art have thus disappeare
which might have been saved if all students of Egyp
ology had displayed a perseverance equal to that
Naville.
Nothing is more curious than the restored Festir
Hall. It was built by Osorkon II about the middle
the ninth century B.C., and commemorated, if not
anniversary of his accession, that of his deification
represents the sovereign and the priests of Amon,
the priesthood of the Egyptian towns, and the numei
actors who took part in the greater ceremonies, nob
soldiers, slaves, men and women of the people. O'
kon II comes out of his palace to go to the temple,
enters the sanctuary, and sees his father Amon face
face, who assures him of his paternal love, blesses h
embraces him, introduces him to the immortals. ".
sovereign, about to become a god in his turn, recei
the homage of his brother gods, and the prayers
mortals. The procession moves on, accompanied
the plaudits of the crowd; here the soldiers execu
war-dances; there dwarfs or negroes make counties
grimaces, contort themselves in endless ways while the
spectators encourage them by their cries. The proces-
sion returns to the palace with as much pomp as it set
out, and while Osorkon, fatigued but deified, gives a
banquet to the persons of the court, the town continues
its diversions far into the night. It is not the fair of
which Herodotus writes, the preparations for which he
has so well described, but we cannot help thinking that
the spectacle of which the Greek traveller caught a
glimpse must have closely resembled the varied episodes
of that which we can follow on the walls of the pylon
designed by Madame Naville. The Egypt that its mum-
mies lead us to regard as morose and gloomy was one of
the gayest countries of antiquity. The fellaheen, then
NAVILLE AND BUBASTIS 39
as now, possessed a spirit of irony and quickness of
"cpartee; they laughed easily, and rapidly forgot the
rriefs and annoyances of daily life. It did not take
nuch to amuse them, and like children they were easily
eased with little things.
The religious fervour and the acclamations with which
"y saluted the statues and the sacred sarcophagi that
led before them, did not prevent them from observ-
. and appreciating the grotesque incidents which
iriably occur even in the best ordered ceremonials :
ilip of one of those carrying the offerings, or the con-
ftions of the negro dancers were received with great
>i!>uts of laughter arid all sorts of buffoonery, which the
ends, engraved above the groups, record for our
fication. No one feared to take liberties with a
inity in whom faith was so strong ; no one felt obliged
/pull a long face, or to assume an unnatural serious-
*^s in order to testify his reverence : it was not con-
iered a slight to the gods to laugh in their presence or
liring their public processions.
! Has Heracleopolis really left fewer traces than Bubas-
is? It would be unwise to say so. Immense mounds
are scattered over the site it occupied, on which stand
the different villages that form the modern city of
Henassieh. A row of big columns, which belonged to
a Roman or Byzantine basilica, can just be seen above
the ground; but besides those only quite unimportant
lines of brick walls. The area is so large that many
thousand pounds would be required to excavate it
wholly ; the monuments might be concealed for months
or years, and the explorer's patience would be exhausted
before he had reached the end of his excavations,
faville only made a few slight excavations on the site,
mt the little he did deserves to be mentioned. What
iterests us in Heracleopolis is that it served as the
ipital of Egypt during the first half of what is called
40 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the Middle Empire. Two dynasties, the IXth and the
Xth, came from it, and the first of the great Theban
Dynasties, the Xllth and Xlllth, resided within its
walls or at the entrance of Fayoum on its territory.
Those Pharaohs embellished it with important build-
ings, and the inscriptions tell us that they brought th
granite or basalt needed by the architects from the
desert situated between the Nile and the Red Sea.
There was then a chance of finding some traces of those
princes and their works amid the ruins, and Naville
actually disinterred several fine architraves, the inscrip-
tions of which contain the name of Ousirtasen II. Un-
fortunately, Heracleopolis suffered greatly during the
civil wars, and its temples were repeatedly pulled down
and destroyed. Ramses II gave to Arsaphes, the great-
est of them, the form it kept until the introduction of
Christianity. He utilized the columns cut by his pre-
decessors of the Xllth Dynasty, and his name is almost
the only one in the inscriptions copied by Naville.^ The
vestibule remains ; the chambers and the sanctuary have
almost completely disappeared. The old Pharaohs
preferred the fine white limestone that lends itself so
admirably to sculpture, but which furnishes inimitable
lime- wash. The Copts and then the Arabs demolished
and calcined piece by piece everything built of lime-
stone. The history inscribed on the walls vanished in
smoke, or was spread in whitewash on the fellaheen's
huts.
Naville has since spent two years in the valley of Defr
El-Bahari. He recently sent photographs showing the
point reached in his task to the Academy of Inscriptions,
of which he is a correspondent. This time it is not a
matter of piecing fragments together, but of clearing
* E. Naville: Ahnas el Medineh {Heracleopolis Ma^^na), with
Chapters on Mendes^ the Nome of Thoth and Leontopolis^ London,
1891-1892.
NAVILLE AND BUBASTIS 41
away the rubbish from an edifice which is almost intact,
an undertaking similar to the clearing of Abydos,
Denderah, Louxor and Edfou. The early kings of the
XVIIIth Dynasty chose the bottom of the amphitheatre
in which to build a funerary chapel. Thoutmosis I
began it, Thoutmosis II continued it, the Queen
Hatshopsouitou and Thoutmosis III finished it. It
was a temple with several tiers of terraces resting against
the sides of the hill. The porticoes are supported by
columns with sixteen angles, topped with a simple
abacus of a beauty of proportion and an elegance of
curve unusual even in the best periods of Egyptian art.
The sculptures with which the walls are covered equal
the finest bas-reliefs of the temple of Setoui I, and are
perhaps even of a freer and firmer sweep. It is too soon
as yet to judge the aspect that the monument will pre-
sent when Naville has finished removing the sand which
buries it in places up to the architrave, and hides the
approaches. But as much as is already visible possesses
a beauty and a charm usually lacking in the Egypt of
the Pharaohs.
SYRIA FROM THE EIGHTEENTH TO THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY B.C. AS IT APPEARS IN THE EGYPTIAN
MONUMENTS
The geography of the "monuments** leaves a wide
vacuum between Assyria and Egypt. The prosperous,
turbulent races of Phoenicia, Philistia, Canaan,
Amorrhea, Northern Syria, and Cilicia had no liking for
spacious buildings, and deemed it useless to adorn their
temples and palaces with the profusion of inscriptions
and bas-reliefs that make the ruins of Nineveh and
Thebes a sort of paradise for the archaeologist. They
wrote little on stone, they sculptured still less, and if
they had always been strong enough to preserve their
independence we should know little of their history or
even of their names. But they were intelligent enough
to let themselves be often beaten, and to provide the
Pharaohs and the Assyrian kings with matter for
numerous victories; their defeats are recorded on both
sides of the isthmus, all details are described, and the
flight of their armies or the taking of their fortresses
is painted on the walls. The praiseworthy zeal of the
sovereigns in celebrating their own glory enables us
to know the physiognomy, the costume, the ornaments,
the worship, and the manners of these conquered peoples
with sufficient accuracy. Every modern student has
derived subjects for articles from these pictures of
battles and warlike prowess, best suited to their par-
ticular tastes or aptitudes. Some have given us the
42
SYRIA 43
political history of Egypt, others an illustrated com-
mentary of biblical narratives, others again a supple-
ment to the prevailing ideas on the beginnings of Greek
civilization, and Max Miiller the geography of Western
Asia and of Europe chiefly between the eighteenth and
tenth centuries b.c.^
The Max Miiller of whom I speak is not the celebrated
Oxford philologist, converted to Egyptology in his
old age. The name Miiller is very common in Ger-
many, and the prefix Max has become so distinguished
that many a Miiller bestows it on his son as an earnest
of future fame and prosperity. Our Max Miiller, still
a young man, is a native of Nuremberg, but he
emigrated a few years ago to the University of Phila-
delphia. He has contributed learned articles to our
reviews, and although his criticism is sometimes
extravagant, it is always full of new ideas and original
observation. In this work, the first destined for the
public, he has put together ideals supplied by the
Egyptian inscriptions about the European or Asiatic
races with whom the Pharaohs came in contact. The work
has been criticized elsewhere.^ What must be noted
here and unreservedly praised is the number of refer-
ences he has collected, their clever, not to say happy,
treatment, the complete picture of the Syrian countries
he has succeeded in deriving from them. Experts will
shake their heads at certain passages, but the whole
is so cleverly and successfully arranged that for a long
while it will be an indispensable document for historians
and prove a sure assistance in their studies. The
number of hieroglyphic characters, and the strange
shapes assumed by the ancient names when they are
1 W. Max Miiller : Asien und Europa nach altcegypHschen Denk-
mcElern, mit einem Vorwort von G. Ebers, mit zahlreichen Abbild-
ungen in Zincotypie und dner Karte. Leipzig, 1893.
^ Revue Critique^ 1894, I. pp. 501-505.
44 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
transcribed in Roman letters, will put off many readers ;
it is an almost inevitable inconvenience in most works
about the ancient lands of the East; but those who
can overcome their fear will be rewarded for their
courage by the information that they will gain.
The whole of Syria was then under Chaldaean influ-
ence. Between 3000 and 4000 B.C. Babylon had several
times directly exercised her authority. Her kings had
led triumphant expeditions there, and planted there the
manners of the nations of the Euphrates. Her merchants
visited it in larger numbers than did those of Egypt,
and sold there to advantage their jewels, arms, and stuffs.
The infiltration of Chaldaean customs was so thorough
that about 1600 B.C., when the Pharaohs invaded it, the
Phoenician and Canaanitish cities must for the most
part have looked to the travellers like provincial towns
of Chaldaea, Ourou, Nipour, or Sippara. The inhabitants
wore the heavily-embroidered and motley-coloured robes
of the Babylonians, and the long hair and curled or
waved beard in the fashion prevailing in the plains of
the Euphrates; they adopted the cuneiform alphabet,
and wrote it with metal or bone stylets on slabs of clay
like the Chaldaean scribes. Not only were private affairs
thus discussed, but also affairs of State; so that when
the Pharaohs had conquered the countries of Libya they
were able to procure interpreters and secretaries who
could decipher the cuneiform, and so assist with the
diplomatic correspondence.^ They were not exigent
with regard to the use of hieroglyphics when a request
or notice was addressed to them from Damascus or
Jerusalem; so long as the tribute was punctually paid
in metal free from alloy they did not care whether the
dispatch announcing its coming was written in one
character or another. They did nothing to change the
1 Cf. Chapter I.
SYRIA 45
taste or habits of the Syrian peoples, and were quite
willing that they should model their way of life on that
of their ancient masters. If after a time certain tenden-
cies to imitate Egypt are observed in their industries
and fashions, the change is caused not by force, but by
an entirely voluntary spirit of initiative. The Egyptian
models had at least the merit of novelty, and their
elegance caused them to be gladly accepted as soon
as they were seen to be the more numerous. They
never entirely superseded the others, and both the art
ind the civilization of those lands, notwithstanding the
idividuality which belonged to their position, occupied
middle place between Egypt and Chaldaea.
The land was divided into small isolated states con-
inually at war with each other for the purpose of con-
[uering or preserving the lordship of a few acres of
rheat in the plain, or a few wooded ravines in the
iills. The caravans or the armies traversed at least a
cingdom a day, sometimes even several kingdoms be-
leen two halting-places. The King of Mageddo could
see from his own capital that of the King of Taanach,
who, before reaching the horizon, would come up to the
frontiers of the empires of Apour or Shounem. All these
kingdoms were strongly fortified, and possessed walled
enclosures large enough to shelter the inhabitants of the
villages dependent on them at the first alarm of war.
Most of them were perched on isolated hills, or on spurs
of the mountains, attached to the principal chain by a
sort of narrow embankment. Their walls followed the
contours of the ground, and were drawn up on two or
three lines to the most accessible points. They were
built of stone, flanked by high embattled towers, fortified
with a keep in which the governor and the rest of the
garrison took refuge after the city itself had been taken
by storm. Sometimes these enclosures were taken by
means of Scaling ladders, or by breaking down and
46 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
burning the gates, but mostly they had to be blockaded,
and reduced by famine. Whether dwellers in the cities
or in the country, the temperament of the Syrians was
violent and hard even to cruelty; they were fond of
cutting off their prisoners' hands and feet, and they
massacred them in cold blood after the fight. Their
war equipment was as perfect as that of the Egyptians,
and consisted of shield, pike, javelins, bow and arrows,
axes, swords, poniards, a pointed helmet, and often a
long padded coat which did duty for a cuirass; their
chariots were heavy, and carried three men, the soldier,
the shield-bearer, the driver, while the Egyptian
chariots only carried two men, the soldier and the
shield-bearer, who acted also as driver. They yielded
easily to Pharaoh's soldiers, but more from lack of
discipline than lack of courage. As one of their small
armies was unable to stand against the large armies of
Egypt, in order to send considerable troops into the
field they sometimes combined, but unaccustomed to
work together they quickly fell into confusion under
the concerted movements and heavy charges of their
adversaries. They only began to gain important advan-
tages after two centuries of subjection, when the Hittites
united all the countries of the north under their
dominion, and opposed Ramses II with compact troops
accustomed to fight under the command of one general.
The names of the nations and the towns are scattered
through the inscriptions in which the episodes of con-
quest are narrated, but they are found recorded together
in interminable lists on the walls of the Theban pylons.
The kings were accustomed to bring away files of
prisoners yoked together with a rope, and they seem to
have dragged them behind their chariots. The poor
wretches, after they had taken part in the triumphal
procession on the day of the sovereign's return, were
for the most part condemned to slavery; some of
SYRIA 47
the most noble of them, however, were led by the con-
queror before the image of his father, Amonra, and
sacrificed to the god with blows of the club.^ They
were engraved in a conspicuous place in the temple, but
as the whole of them would have taken too much space,
abbreviated groups were substituted in which the name
of each was combined with his idealized portrait. The
body became a sort of indented ellipse in which the
name was engraved; shoulders rose above it, and two
arms bound behind jutted out from them, and above
was a human head, a Semite head for the Asiatics,
a negro head for the tribes of the Upper Nile. They
were arranged in a fairly regular order, nearly always
similar, and we can often successfully identify them with
Hebrew, Greek, or Arab places. Many commemorate
obscure towns; a few inform us of the existence at that
time of cities famous in classical ages. They are chiefly
those of Palestine : Gaza, Ascalon, Joppa, Mageddo,
Taanach, Accho, and a hundred besides among which it
is strange not to find Jerusalem ; it flourished, however,
and the dispatches of its kings tell us that it was called
Ourousalim. Damascus is there under the form Dimas-
kou, with Hamath and a fortress then celebrated,
Qodshou on the Orontes; towns in Northern Syria may
be counted by tens : Khaloupou-Alep, Karchemis at the
ford of the Euphrates, Nirab, Dour-Banat, which is the
Castrum puellarum of our Crusades, Ourima, Dolikhe.
Phoenicia proper does not appear in these triumphal
lists, and only the most northerly of its towns, Arad
and Simyra, are thereon inscribed. Byblos, Sidon,
Sarepta, and Tyre were inhabited by cautious traders
who felt themselves powerless to resist Pharaoh's archers
and sailors; they reckoned that in paying tribute they
would have the advantage of trading without hindrance
I Cf. Chapter III.
48 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
with their would-be masters, and that by these pacific
measures they would gain the money for their annual
tribute. They were never beaten because they never
resisted; but other documents mention their country.
Tyre, for instance, was already embarked in the open
sea on her island, although she had as yet no springs
nor cisterns from which to drink, and had to import
water from the mainland.
She had reasons for her prudence. She had already
begun her voyages of discovery and her colonization
of the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean. She had
established herself in the large island of Cyprus, then
called Asi (Asia), which provided her with wood for
her ships, with copper and bronze for her metal-workers.
By degrees she had gained Crete, the islands of the
Archipelago, continental Greece, possibly the shores
of the Propontis and of the Black Sea. She found there
races of a different origin and of a lower civilization
than that of the east, but not, as is sometimes thought,
savage races. She brought them the product of Asiatic
industries, and received from them in exchange the
primitive materials used by her in her factories : alum,
colours, purple dye, gold, silver, bronze, rude vases
and ornaments, which pleased the educated taste of
Egypt or Syria, just as European women prize and
wear African or Asiatic jewellery. Her sailors occupied
small islands, and built factories on well-situated pro-
montories, where they felt themselves protected from the
aborigines. It is probable that like the Carthaginians
at a later period they carefully concealed the position
of the lands they discovered, and only spoke of them
in a vague way. They were the Islands of the sea, the
Countries of the sea^ and the Egyptians named them in
the same way, Islands of the Very Green, Countries of
the Very Green , the Very Green being our Mediterranean.
It would be erroneous, however, to suppose that they
SYRIA 49
were content to speak of them according to what they
heard from their Phoenician vassals, and that they never
attempted to approach them directly. They had no
dread of the sea, as is so often stated, but each powerful
Dynasty by which they were ruled was careful to create
a navy on a war basis to protect the mouths of the
Nile, or to encourage the development of the mercantile
marine which coasted between the ports of the Delta
and those of the Syrian shore. The pictures at Deir El-
Bahari present a few ships of the royal navy of Thout-
mosis III. It would count for little with us, but it must
not be forgotten that Egypt was at that time the most
formidable power in the world, and her fleet stood for
the best that could be furnished by the shipbuilder's
yards of any country. Her voyages into the country of
the Somali in search of incense testify to the skill of
her pilots ; and what they accomplished without disaster
in the south, they could certainly have undertaken in
the less perilous regions of the north.
We are not fortunate enough to possess a detailed and
illustrated narrative of any of these explorations, but we
have a direct proof that they repeatedly took place.
The Pharaohs kept royal envoys in Syria, persons
of rank chosen from the most intelligent or noblest of
those immediately about them. The names of some
of them have come down to us, but the one about whom
we have most information lived in the reign of Amen6-
th6s IV. He is one Doudou, whose tomb still exists in
the hills of El-Amarna, and who is often mentioned in
the dispatches exchanged between the sovereign and his
Asiatic vassals. Doudou represented Pharaoh in Syria,
he travelled through the country, hearing complaints,
redressing wrongs, trying to restore order wherever
some chief was making a disturbance ; the post of royal
messenger exacted that the holder of it should go in
person to the provinces, the government of which was
4
50 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
entrusted to him. Among those messengers whose
monuments have survived, several bear in addition the
title administrators of the northern countries y and added
to the mention of that charge are a certain number of
flattering epithets destined to enumerate the countries
over which they exercised the supremacy of Egypt.
Thoutii, one of the most celebrated of them, the hero
of a popular tale, said of himself that he owed the favour
of his master, Thoutmosis III, to the zeal with which he
performed his mission "to every foreign land," ** to
the Islands of the Very Green"; he had filled the
treasury with lapis-lazuli and gold and silver from those
far-off regions.^ Did an Egyptian vessel or a Phoeni-
cian squadron take him there? We do not know, but
Rakhmiriya, one of his contemporaries, had the people
of these islands painted in his tomb, and elsewhere, the
galleys which took them to Thebes may be seen ; the
model is entirely Egyptian, and they are manned by
pure-bred Egyptians. For my part I see no reason to
doubt that more than one Egyptian visited Greece in
the middle of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The Phoenicians,
who were themselves dependent on the Theban king,
owned many islands, and in sending a messenger to
the vassals or subjects of his vassals, he was using a
right of which no one in the world would then have
contested the legitimacy. There is a long-standing pre-
judice which prevents some students from admitting that
these ancient relations, of which the Greeks of the
classical era had not entirely lost the remembrance, ever
existed except in the imagination of Egyptologists, but
everything and anything may be expected of Egypt;
I am certain that when its monuments are better known,
inscriptions or pictures will be found that will remove
all doubt even from the most prejudiced minds.
^ Dev^ria : Mimoires et Fra^ments^ I. pp. 35-53 ; partly from his
own researches, partly from those of Birch.
PhAFAOH ThOUTMOSIS III., FROM A StATUK IN THE MuSEUM AT CAIRO.
''«J?« 50.
SYRIA 51
Two or three centuries after Thoutmosis III, the
points of contact between the inhabitants of the shores
of the ^gean Sea and the civilized countries of the East
increased. The races of the sea became active, and
desired to conquer a new country for themselves on the
banks of the Nile. The Achaeans fought in the open
Delta before settling at Cyprus, like the Tyrsenes before
turning to Italy. That fact astonishes those modern
students who imagine that the antique world was an
assemblage of timorous, home-keeping nations or tribes,
terrified at the notion of courting adventures, forced from
time to time to conquest by ambitious sovereigns, but
always ready to return to their isolation and immobility
as soon as such tiresome rulers had ceased to exist. It
is the other side of this picture that is true, and a rest-
lessness, often quite aimless, was as great two thousand
years B.C. as it was in the Roman era. The histories of
Egypt, of Syria, of Assyria, of Chaldaea are, wherever we
know them, filled with accounts of distant expeditions by
land and sea. The imperfect means of communication,
the bad state of the rivers, the insecurity of the roads,
the perpetual danger of robbery, death or slavery,
nothing indeed daunted the traders, and the sailors
were as courageous as the leaders of the caravans ; they
ploughed the eastern Mediterranean in every sense, and
the peoples whom they visited, inspired by their
example, did not hesitate to brave the risks of long
voyages. They took weeks over what we should accom-
plish in a few hours. A cape that our smallest vessels
easily double at any season, took them several days,
since they were forced to await a relative calm or a favour-
able wind for their frail boats. Terrible tales are told
of whirlpools which swallowed up everything, of islands
inhabited by monsters, or which sunk beneath the waves
directly they were approached, of moving rocks between
which it was necessary to glide very quickly to avoid
h
52 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
being crushed ; but they set out all the same, certain not
to return till after long years of absence. The tradi-
tions of Greece preserved the memory of the voyages
and migrations to which the forerunners of the classic
Hellenes were accustomed; but archaeologists relegated
them to the domain of fable in so peremptory a manner
that they were only mentioned with mistrust and even
with apology. Egypt and Egyptologists have often
reminded us that many doubtful traditions contain a
large amount of truth, and have furnished contemporary
proof of several migrations of peoples. But their testi-
mony has been revoked, and many persons are still
incredulous. They should carefully study Max Miiller's
book, in which they will find plenty of material to
convince them.
I
h
VI
EGYPT AND THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
The number of dissertations on the origin and nature
of the Eleusinian mysteries are in inverse proportion
to the scantiness of precise information concerning the
ceremonies performed at them. The initiated solemnly
undertook not to reveal anything, and scarcely ever
spoke of them, or, if they did, merely mentioned such
generalities as were known to all. The Christian apolo-
gists, restrained by a dread of awkward consequences to
which they would have exposed themselves by too
flagrant indiscretions, never openly concerned themselves
with the demonstration of dogmas or secret operations.
And, besides, the spirit of proselytism, which was so
strong in them, led them to see only the ridiculous or
indecent side of the ceremonies, and renders their testi-
mony suspect or incomplete. In order to guess at what
took place in the sanctuary, we have nothing but brief
allusions here and there, made more obscure by their
personal bias, in the writings of the Christian apolo-
gists, the historians, the orators, the moralists, the
poets, the grammarians and rhetoricians. Inscriptions
of different epochs confirm, correct and contradict this
information, and sometimes add valuable details. It
has all been classified, labelled, and commented on by
generations of students, whose systems, suited to the
taste and fashion of the moment, are clever and well
deduced, but so subtle in essence, and so rarefied in
invention, that after studying them we know even less
53
54 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
than before. We leave them with the clear conviction
that if the Eleusinian ceremonies were mysteries for the
ancients, they are in another way equally ineffable mys-
teries for us, and we console ourselves for our ignorance
with the fact that the experts themselves know very
little on the subject.
Foucart, however, decided to publish the result of his
researches in this hazardous region. ^ He has good
reason for knowing Eleusis, and for interesting himself
in the religious associations of Greece; his experience
has suggested a solution of the problem that I consider
wholly true in bulk, and nearly so in detail. Some will
hesitate to admit it, or will only half acknowledge it;
but all will agree in admiring the clear way in which he
puts the problem, explains the inscriptions one by the
other, and leads the reader to the conclusion without
shirking any difficulty or obstacle that he is unable to
overcome. Even in France, where clearness is so highly
prized, students capable of conducting a dissertation of
eighty quarto pages so that no point is obscure through
any fault of composition, and where the principal thesis
is demonstrated by a series of proofs skilfully introduced
at the right moment, are rare : the result is that the
reader passes, almost unconsciously, from mistrust and
scepticism to conviction. Foucart shows at the begin-
ning that the Demeter of Eleusis is an Egyptian by
birth, an Isis who gradually became hellenized. He
accompanies her in her evolution, notes what her priest-
hood was, with its ideas on the future life, and the
especial turn of its doctrines, what attraction it offered
to pious minds, and the various ways by which it rallied
them round it. It is very strange to find this profes-
sional Hellenist, whose education was in no way calcu-
^ P. Foucart : " Recherches sur I'origine et la nature des myst^res
d'Eleusis " (extract from the M/motres de VAcadimie des Inscriptions
et Belles Lettres^ Vol. xxxv, Pt. 2), 1895.
EGYPT AND ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES 55
lated to lead him into the paths of oriental origins,
allowing himself to be gradually attracted by matters
Egyptian, and to give them an attention refused by so
many of our classical students, and then beginning to
love them, yet never for an instant losing the even
balance of his mind, and the perfect equilibrium of his
judgment.
The ancient Greeks, who had a sufficiently good
opinion of themselves, and who easily persuaded them-
selves of their superiority over the barbarians (that is,
over all other nations), admitted, however, that they
owed some of the elements of their civilization to the
great nations of the East, to the Egyptians in particular.
Modern Hellenists, more Greek in that point than the
old Greeks themselves, long repudiated the tradition of
debts to the East, and put forward excellent reasons for
believing that Greece produced and developed all her
gods, all her religious and philosophical opinions, with-
out foreign aid. Foucart, on the contrary, admits the
authenticity of the legends that preserved the memory of
the Egyptian migrations. The monuments of the Theban
Dynasties record that from the sixteenth century B.C.,
the officers of King Thoutmosis III and his successors
went straight from the mouth of the Nile or the coast
of Syria to the islands of the ^gean Sea in Phoenician
boats. 1 The horror of the sea always attributed to the
Egyptians did not prevent them from navigating it from
the Vth and Vlth Dynasties; in the XVIIIth Dynasty
they were a maritime power, in so far as is possible for a
nation possessing a restricted coast-line, and their ships
sailed to Somaliland, past the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb,
the land of incense, or they sailed periodically to Syria,
Cyprus, or Asia Minor. The prejudice against the
tradition of fairly close relations between the cities
of Hellas and those of Egypt is solely that of the
1 Cf. Chapter V.
56 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
philologist or classical archaeologist entirely ignorant
of oriental studies. The prejudice is dying out, but
opinions due to it still exist in some degree, and more
than one historian is opposed to the thought that exiles
or traders could go from the mouths of the Nile to
Argolis or Attica. Foucart believes it, and quotes facts
of a nature to prove it. He afterwards compares the
person and worship of the Eleusinian Demeter with the
person and worship of Isis, and then shows that the
resemblance between the two goddesses is not merely
accidental and on the surface, but must be sought in the
depths of their nature. The Greek is not a servile copy
of the Egyptian, adapted to her Western environment,
but preserves the chief characteristics of her African
model. Her religion reminds the faithful of the double
benefit she has conferred on them, the invention of
agriculture which has introduced them into the civilized
life of this world, and the initiation into mysteries which
assured them happiness in the other world. Her most
ancient ceremonies which existed in the eleventh century
B.C. celebrate the moment when the corn springs, when
the straw is formed, when the grain is threshed. The
first-fruits of the harvest were consecrated to her, and
her most sacred emblem, that which was presented to
the initiated only at the very last, was the blade of ripe
corn. To those who bound themselves to her by cere-
monies and solemn oaths, she promised certain happi-
ness in the other world as a reward for their devotion.
It is not necessary to be a learned Egyptologist to
recognize the Isis of the Delta under the Greek name
and robe, the fertile earth, lady of the harvests and of
bread, who awards her faithful ones the same fate which
she assured to her husband, Osiris, and who guides
them to a shining paradise through the horrors of the
darkness beyond the tomb.
The revelations made to the neophytes contained no
EGYPT AND ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES 57
moral teaching, no philosophical symbolism. They
comprised three different elements, a drama performed
for them by the priesthood during the vigils of the
initiation, the objects shown to them, the formulas
uttered and taught to them. The drama instructed them
in facts unknown, or imperfectly known to the common
herd ; the rape of Cora by Hades, the grief of Demeter,
and her sad journeys in search of her daughter, her
union with Celeus, and the birth of Euboleus, the man-
ner in which Triptolemus delivered her half-sister Cora
on a chariot drawn by serpents. In another series of
scenes the hierophant and the priestess of Demeter acted
the marriage of Zeus and Demeter, and presented to the
spectators the ultimate result, the blade of ripe corn.
The representation took place in the sacred enclosure,
and in the halls of the temple; there were few scenic
decorations, no mechanical contrivances, or complicated
devices. ** The silence of the night, the alternations of
light and shade, the majestic voice of the sacred herald,
the imposing robes of the hierophants and ministers
engaged in the solemnities, the singing of the choir, now
plaintive, now triumphant, exercised a strong influence
on the senses and imagination. The heart thus excited
by the preparation that preceded the initiation, mystery
easily held sway in the sacred precincts; the promises
and semi-revelations of the mystagogue to whom the
instruction of the novice was entrusted, the retreat into
the Eleusinium of Athens, the fasting, the repeated puri-
fications and sacrifices, the songs and dances of the pro-
cession from Athens to Eleusis, the continual shouts of
lacchos, the arrival by torchlight in the holy city, and,
above all, the impatient and anxious anticipation of what
was to be revealed, combined to incline a man to strong
emotion. And when at last the hierophant disclosed the
sacred effigies to his view, in a form and with attributes
unknown to the profane, must he not have felt nearer the
h
58 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
gods, as if admitted to contemplate them face to face?"
But that was not sufficient to give him the certitude of
everlasting happiness in the future life. He desired
more than the sight of gods suffering, and then triumph-
ing in glory; he required a solemn act in which he
played a part, before acquiring full possession of the
mysterious truth. We know that it was like an anticipa-
tory rehearsal of the peregrinations his soul would have
to make before attaining supreme felicity. Plutarch tells
us that there were first walks at random through diffi-
cult by-ways, disquieting and interminable wanderings
in utter darkness, all simulating the way through hell
that must be traversed before reaching paradise. When,
at last, he was on the point of succumbing to fatigue
and terror, a wonderful light dawned on his eyes, and
he gazed on the pure places, and on the meadows full
of dancing and singing, of holy speeches and divine
apparitions. Even then the revelation was incomplete;
it indicated the obstacles to be overcome, and the end
towards which his efforts were directed, but it neglected
to show the way by which he could come forth victorious
from his trials.
But the words he listened to in the course of the cere-
monies instructed him ; the hierophant alone had the
right of pronouncing them, and it was not the least
glory of his ministry. The old authors, however, have
not preserved them, and we should be reduced to con-
jecture if documents emanating from the Orphic sect
did not furnish an equivalent. The Orphics were accus-
tomed to engrave extracts from the poem to which they
consigned the part of their exegesis concerning the
travels of the soul, the descent into Hades, on plates
of gold which they deposited in the tombs. They were
secret instructions, since they were imprisoned with the
body in its last resting-place, into which no human eye
could penetrate from the day on which the corpse was
EGYPT AND ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES 59
therein enclosed : ** You will find (they said) a spring on
the left in the domains of Hades, and near it a white
cypress ; you will not approach that spring. You will find
another which has its source in the lake of memory, and
guardians stand in front of it. Then say — * I am the
Child of the Earth and of the starry Sky, but know that
my origin is divine. I am devoured by and perish with
thirst ; give me, without delay, the fresh water that flows
from the lake of memory.' And they will give you to
drink of the divine spring, and then you will reign with
the others." In another fragment a friend undertakes
to guide the pilgrim. '* And when your soul has left
the light of the sun, turn to the right as every wise man
should," in order to avoid the white cypress and the
fatal spring; ''Farewell, thou who hast experienced
what thou hadst never yet experienced, from a man thou
hast become a god, thou art [white and pure] as a kid
dipped in milk; farewell, farewell, thou who takest the
right-hand path towards the fields and sacred woods of
Proserpine." Elsewhere the soul stops in front of the
spring, and talks with it. ** * I am devoured by and
perish with thirst.' 'Well, then, drink of my spring;
I flow always to the right of the cypress. Who art
thou? Who is thy father?' * I am son of the Earth
and of the starry Sky.' " A last extract describes his
condition when he is at the end of his journey : " Pure,
and issued from what is pure, I come towards thee.
Queen of Hades, and towards you, Eucles, Euboleus, and
towards you all, immortal gods, for I boast of belonging
to your race. I have escaped the dread circle of pro-
found grief, and with my swift feet have entered the
desired realm, and have descended into the bosom of
the Queen of Hades." The resemblance between the
Orphic ideas and the Eleusinian dogmas is sufficiently
close to lead us to think that the portions of the
Orphic ritual so far discovered are analogous to the still
k
6o NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
unknown formulas of the Eleusinian ritual. The words
declaimed by the hierophant in a loud voice perfectly in
tune, were the prayers, and the necessary instructions
given to the soul of the initiated, so that he might know
what each of the districts of the infernal regions was like,
the dangers it concealed, and that had to be avoided, the
roads that had to be traversed, the power of the beings
he would have to encounter before he could be admitted
to the presence of the goddess, and participate in the
felicities she bestowed on the faithful." Amid a scene
calculated to strike the senses and the imagination, the
novice saw the life and adventures of the divinities who
reigned over the lower world; he was admitted into
their presence, and contemplated their images; he tra-
versed their domain, and learned the all-powerful words
which opened it to him. Was not that what he had
come to ask of the goddesses of Eleusis ? Are not those
revelations, the means and sure pledge of an eternal
happiness, sufficient to explain the transports of joy to
which the initiated gave themselves up? Do they not
at least justify the firm trust in the future which caused
one of them to say, " Thanks to the mysteries, death for
mortals is not an evil, but a good " ?
It is necessary to be better informed than I am con-
cerning the religions of Demeter and Cora to judge how
closely their dogmas resemble those of the religions of
Isis and Osiris. All the facts put forward by Foucart
are true of the Egyptian Isis; the Hellenists must decide
if the resemblance with the corresponding facts that he
alleges of Demeter proves as much as I think it does.
It seems certain to me that the Eleusinian mysteries are
Egyptian by execution and intention ; Egyptian thought
dominates them, and the manner in which the thought
is expressed is Egyptian. The Egyptians, always occu-
pied with the life beyond the grave, tried in very remote
ages to teach men the art of living after death, and of
'.•'•:•:
I
EGYPT AND ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES 6i
leading a life with the gods resembling existence on
earth, and the pleasantest existence they could imagine.
To attain it, it was necessary to take every precaution
in this life, and to begin by becoming attached to some
divinity able to protect those who acknowledged his
sovereignty; it was usually a god who, having suffered
death, had escaped it, Sokaris, Khontamentit, Phtah,
Osiris ; and the mortal was entitled the faithful servant
of Sokaris, Khontamentit, Phtah, Osiris, according to
which god he chose. He learned by heart the chapters
which gave him entrance into the god's domain, for,
once a mummy, he might forget them in the first
troubles of the embalmment ; therefore they were recited
in his ear before he was carried to the tomb, and, to make
more certain, a special work containing them was placed
in his coffin; it was a " Book of the Dead," illustrated
with vignettes, a real guide-book to Hades, in which the
roads that led from our earth to all the paradises
were described stage by stage. Like the hierophant of
Eleusis, the Egyptian priest had to have a voice perfectly
in tune for intoning the formulas, and the novice who
repeated them after him had also to possess a voice
equally in tune. Like him who was initiated into the
Eleusinian mysteries, the Egyptian dead personage en-
countered dangerous or salutary springs on his way, as
well as monsters whom he pacified with his singing; he
went through opaque darkness, and at last reached fertile
islands, brilliant with light, the meadows of sweet cypress^
inhere his master, Osiris, offered him a peaceful asylum
on condition of repeating the password. A long while ago
I was struck with the Egyptian turn of the verses traced
|on the gold plaques of Petelia,^ and I took them to have
been borrowed from Egypt by the theologians of Magna
Graecia. Such an opinion, coming from an Egyptolo-
^ I borrowed them from Fr. Lenormant in order to quote them in
my lectures at the College de France in 1887.
9' h % »
62 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
gist, would have been suspected by the Hellenist as
savouring of partiality; coming from a distinguished
Hellenist, it will, I hope, receive a kinder welcome, and
be discussed with the attention it deserves.
The Mediterranean races showed a marked taste for
Egyptian jewellery, scarabs, coarse glass ware, ivories,
bronze and enamelled statuettes from the eighth to the
fifth century B.C. Phoenician and Greek traders brought
cargoes of them to all the coasts, to Asia Minor, to the
islands of the Archipelago, to Carthage, Sardinia, Italy ;
Egyptian statuettes, and other objects, have been found
at Rome in the unrestored portions of the wall of Servius
Tullius, evidently mingled with the earth when the foun-
dations were laid, as preservative amulets. Religious or
philosophical doctrines much resemble industrial pro-
ducts : they are spread over the earth, and, when they
are not expatriated by their own act, foreigners come
to collect them in their native place. Many Greek
scholars, philosophers and theologians travelled in
Egypt at that time, and brought back ideas which some-
times had a great vogue. What was stale and com-
monplace on the banks of the Nile would be regarded as
original and novel in the towns of the ^gean Sea or
the Ionian Coast. It was then that the Orphic doctrines
prevailed; it was then, doubtless, that the Eleusinian
mysteries assumed the form in which we know^ them,
and which Foucart explains in so delightful a fashion.
VII
A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL OF PHARAONIC EGYPT
Tell el-Armarna, the inaccurate name given to the
site of one of the ancient capitals of the Pharaohs, is
jnarked by a vast amphitheatre of low, sandy hills worn
>y water-courses, by a narrow strip of earth of meagre
cultivation along the Nile, by three villages at intervals
A a few miles from south to north, and near the largest
heap of broken walls running in every direction, by
:attered bricks, fragments of limestone and granite, and
)y the half-filled trenches that distinguish the sites of
excavations in Egypt. At the beginning of the nine-
teenth century the preservation of the town was such
that the direction of the streets and the contours of the
louses and palaces could be distinguished : the members
)f the French commission drew a plan which was repro-
duced in the works of Lepsius and Prisse d'Avennes.
How comes it that what they saw has perished? The
usurers and traders of Mellaoui provided themselves
thence with materials for their buildings, the peasants of
the district obtained thence great baskets of sehakhy the
nitreous dust which is the manure of the Said, seekers
after antiquities worked the site to secure antiques that
sell easily, especially the blue, green, yellow, red, white,
violet enamelled rings so beloved of the tourist; and
lastly the discovery of a correspondence in cuneiform
writing ^ and the imprudence of travellers in search of a
^good find, sent the natives into the field, with the result
1 Cf. Chapter L
63
64 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
that they have destroyed everything. When Flinders
Petrie went there to carry on excavations scarcely any-
thing remained of what his predecessors had discovered.
But all the same he set to work with his characteristic
energy, and if he was compelled to confirm the disap-
pearance of entire buildings in some places, he suc-
ceeded in unearthing elsewhere documents of value for
the history of Egypt and of the ancient world. ^
That corner of the earth has known strange fortunes.
In the beginning it was a dependency of Hermopolis and
without a life of its own. The mountains which form
its eastern boundary contain, it is true, quarries of a
very pure and fine alabaster that had been worked from
the time of the Memphian kings, but the port where the
blocks were loaded was farther south, and the activity
which the working of the quarries produced only affected
that place. The amphitheatre of El-Amarna seems to
have been, then as now, a moderately fertile province,
sparsely populated, exposed to the nomad marauders of
the outskirts of the desert. Suddenly, about the fifteenth
century B.C., an eccentric Pharaoh, Amen6thes IV, took
a violent liking to it, went to live there, laid out gardens,
built palaces and temples, established his court and
transferred the government there; from one day to the
next a town sprang up where before there had only
been obscure hamlets, and for about twenty years the
destinies of the world hung on the spot. The earliest
students to discover this fact and to try and find out the
reason, were struck first by the strange physiognomy
given to the sovereign and his family by contemporary
artists, and then by the hatred shown, officially at least,
by the chief personages of the state to the god of Thebes,
Amonra, lord of Karnak. They put forth the most
preposterous hypotheses to explain these anomalies, and
1 W. M. Flinders Petrie : Tell-el-Amarna^ with Chapters by Prof.
A. H. Sayce, F. LI. Griffith, E. G. J. Spurrell. 1894.
A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL 65
they made Amenothes IV sometimes an eunuch, some-
times a woman, although the monuments represented
him dressed as a man and accompanied by a queen,
whom he appeared to love affectionately. They were
all in agreement in declaring him an idiot or a fanatic,
or both together; as the god of whom he declared him-
self the devoted servant was named Atonou, and, as
Atonou is assonant with the name of the Phoenician
I Adonis, they imagined that he had tried to acclimatize
an Asiatic worship in Egypt, or an ancient Egyptian
worship modified by Asiatic ideas. But what motive
|. could a Pharaoh of pure race have had for suddenly
i! worshipping a strange divinity? He might have done
so from his earliest childhood under the influence of a
I Syrian mother, whence the conclusion that Tiyi, the
li wife of Amenothes III and the mother of Amenothes IV
was a Semitic princess. Anything and everything may
be easily explained by a few hypotheses.
The truth, as it now begins to be evolved from
' documentary evidence, is not very complicated. Tiyi is
i not a princess, nor did she come from Asia : she sprung
from an Egyptian family who had no connection with
the royal House, and it was probably love that gave her
the rank of queen, usually attainable only by the
daughters of the race of Pharaoh. The son she had
V by her husband grew to have a horror of the Theban
f Amon. Perhaps the priests were opposed to the choice
of him as heir. Directly he was master he resolved to
destroy their power, and he transferred his homage from
their idol to Atonou, the Disk of the Sun, an ancient
god of Heliopolis. It was a very serious step, for, in
denying the religion of his ancestors, he excited the
hostility of the richest priesthood in the world and,
what was even more serious, the hatred of his own
capital, for Thebes was the city of Amon before it was
tat of the Pharaohs. In Egypt, the city and its divine
■
66 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
patron were so closely united that to touch one was
perforce to attack the other; neither Thebes, nor Mem-
phis, nor the smallest village would have denied its god
even to gain the favour of the sovereign. If Amen-
othes had adopted the sun, R^, Khopri, Atoumou, as
worshipped at Heliopolis, he need only have migrated
to Heliopolis and proclaimed it his capital, but as he
chose a secondary form of the sun of Heliopolis, Heli-
opolis, no more than Thebes, could renounce its master,
and the only resource left was to build a new city
where Atonou would have the supreme power. We do
not know the motives that led him to choose the district
of El-Amarna; he was probably attracted by the extent
of the plain, by its central position in the kingdom,
especially by the absence of important divinities or
sanctuaries that would have to be dispossessed. He
marked off a district from the nome of Heliopolis, and
demonstrated its boundaries by stelae engraved on the
rocks, and made of it a new nome which he called
Khouit-Atonou, '* the Horizon of the Solar Disk," like
the town. About the same time he renounced the name
of Amenothes, which consecrated him to his enemy
Amon, and desired to be called henceforth Khouniato-
nou, *' the Glory of the Solar Disk." Oriental monarchs
never found any difficulty in improvising residences;
Khouniatonou undertook to build the temple and the
palace, and those about him did the rest. The temple
was spread over an immense surface, of which the
sanctuary, properly so called, only occupied a very
small part; it was flanked by brick store-houses, and a
huge wall surrounded the whole. It was of fine white
limestone, but almost bare of ornament; there was not
time to decorate it suitably. The palace was of brick,
and consisted of spacious halls and of small chambers
into which the servants were crowded. Columns sup-
ported the chief apartments, those where the Pharaoh
A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL 67
gave audience, but the material of the partition
walls and of the pillars was invariably covered with
white stucco or lime-wash, on which scenes from
private life were painted in bright colours. The pave-
ment was painted like the walls. In one of the apart-
ments, apparently used by the women, a picture of a
rectangular basin filled with fish can still be seen.
Tufts of water-plants and flowering shrubs adorn the
banks, among which birds are flying and calves are
frisking; small tables laden with fruits stand in rows
to the right and left, and a file of negro and Syrian
prisoners, separated by enormous arches, are displayed
on the short sides. The tonality of the whole is clear
and bright; the animals are drawn with a breadth and
freedom and facility that surprise and delight the visitor.
Flinders Petrie has picked up fragments of statues
representing Khouniatonou, his wife, and the members
of their family, all over the ruins. He has even found
a plaster mask, so remarkably life-like that he does not
hesitate to recognize it as the sovereign's death mask,
taken a very few moments after death as a model
for the sculptors who were to decorate the tomb.
They are the most interesting pieces to study. The
first, which go back to the beginning of the reign, are
conceived in the conventional style customary for royal
statues under the XVIIIth Dynasty. Amenothes IV is
scarcely to be distinguished from his father Amenothes
III; he has the regular and somewhat heavy features
and the idealized body of the orthodox Pharaohs. We
might say that in renouncing his name, he wished to
renounce his face, for his portraits, at the time when he
was named Khouniatonou, give him a paradoxical ap-
pearance. They have a long, narrow head, culminating
in a sugar loaf, a receding forehead, a large, aquiline,
pointed nose, a small mouth, an enormous chin jutting
forward awkwardly, and attached to a long, thin neck;
k
68 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
no shoulders or muscles to speak of, but so round a
chest, so balloon-like a stomach, such broad hips on such
fat thighs, that we might imagine ourselves to be look-
ing at a woman. The general outline easily lends itself to
caricature, and contemporary artists have so exagger-
ated the details, intentionally perhaps, that it is almost
grotesque; the man himself, however, had nothing
ridiculous about him, and in some of his portraits he
possesses a languid grace, as if due to delicate health,
which is not without dignity. He seems to have been
good and affectionate; he loved his wife passionately,
and he associated her with the acts of his reign. If he
went out to climb up to the temple, she accompanied
him in a chariot. If he publicly honoured a servant,
she stood by him and helped him to distribute the gold
decorations. She worshipped the "Solar Disk" with
him, she served him in the intimacy of private life when
in the harem he laid aside the cares of public business,
and they were so united that one bas-relief shows her
seated lovingly on her husband's knees, a posture of
which we do not know any other example. They had six
daughters, whom they brought up to live with them
in unrestrained familiarity; the girls accompanied their
parents wherever they went, and played about the throne |
while they fulfilled their royal duties. The gentleness
and gaiety of the masters was reflected in the life of
the subjects; the pictures we have of it are filled with
processions, cavalcades, banquets, amusements. The
Pharaoh rewards the high priest Maririya with golden
collars for his services; the people dance round him
with joy. Houiya returns from Syria, and solemnly
offers the tribute collected during his inspection of the
Asiatic provinces; the sovereign renders thanks to his
god, carried in his palanquin on his officers' shoulders,
to the singing of hymns and the swinging of large fans.
Prince Ai marries the nurse of one of the princesses f
I
A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL 69
the whole town disports itself, and drinks deeply at the
wedding. Do not imagine that such continual festivals
were harmful to the administration of the State :
Khouniatonou carefully watched over the foreign policy,
and the prestige of Egypt suffered neither in Ethiopia
nor in Syria.
When examined at close quarters the ruins of the
private dwellings are even more curious than those of
the palace. They show us what a town was like at the
time of the great Egyptian power, and how the people
lived while its chiefs were enriching themselves with
the treasures of Africa and Asia. Some of the houses
evidently belonged to nobles, and furnish an idea of the
comfort with which the wealthy surrounded themselves :
lofty ceilings, supported on columns under which it was
cool during the heat of the day; small bedrooms of a
pleasant aspect; immense store-houses for provisions
and material; kitchens well supplied with stoves. The
houses of the common people are small but convenient,
and are much like the dwellings of a citizen in easy
circumstances in Upper Egypt at the present day. The
pictures drawn in the hypogeums complete the work of
the excavations, and with their help we can restore in
imagination the furniture and decoration. Fragments
of plates and dishes and kitchen utensils supply positive
information about their food. Flinders Petrie collected
necks of amphorae by the hundred, on which informa-
tion as to their contents is stamped or written ; they are
for the most part wines of different growths and years,
but also palm wine, oil, honey, liqueurs, preserves, all
of the best that was eaten and drunk at the tables of
the Pharaohs. We can imagine the common people
occupied in the employments usual in a big city at that
period, but only two important industries have left
sensible traces, that of the glass-maker and the potter.
The Egyptians of the XVIIIth Dynasty were extremely
70 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
fond of enamelled pottery : the instinct of physical
cleanliness, which was strongly developed in them, made
them greatly value for ordinary use vases and utensils
and jewellery covered with enamel, which was as
easy to keep clean and to wash as it was cool to look
at and to touch. Flinders Petrie discovered several
places where glass and coloured enamels were worked,
and he has reconstructed the manipulations in detail.
He describes the ovens, the crucibles, some of which
are still filled with vitreous paste, ashes, the refuse of
the manufacture : analysis has revealed the composition
of several kinds of coloured glass. It is a curious
chapter in the history of ancient glass making, and it
is to be wished that all directors of excavations would
attach as much importance to the discovery of similar
objects : we should soon come to know thoroughly the
material and technique of the industries, the marvellous
products of which are daily unearthed. Several of the
sculptors' studios contain models, sketches, rough drafts,
rapidly thrown off or retouched, for the unfinished
statues no longer rare in our museums ; what they offer
us that is new is a sufficiently considerable number of
plaster castings. I obtained several pieces of the sort
at Thebes, Abydos and Coptos, but they were mixed up
with objects of such different dates that it was impos-
sible to fix their period, and decide if they belonged to
the Grasco-Roman time, or if they went back to the age
of the Pharaohs. It must now be admitted that the
sculptors of the great Theban epoch readily employed
plaster castings, and several facts, recently ill under-
stood, urge me to believe that the sculptors of Memphis
employed it equally often and with equal skill.
The bas-reliefs that decorate the tombs of El-Amarna
are as eccentric in manner as the statues and paintings
brought to light in the town. The pictures bear little
resemblance to those of the Theban tombs of the same
A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL 71
century, and it has therefore been concluded that the
religious revolution brought with it a revolution in art.
But that is a manifest exaggeration, and as soon as the
matter is thoroughly examined we are compelled to
alter our opinion. The difference lies much more in the
nature of the scenes than in the manner in which they
are executed. In conventions, drawing, compositionv
the artists of El-Amarna do not differ in essentials from
those who flourished in Thebes at that time. This is
explained if we reflect on the conditions in which they
were recruited. The king reserved for himself the men
who had worked for his father, the Thebans or pro-
vincials trained in the Theban school, and no detail is to
be observed in his statues that distinguishes them from
those of Amenothes III : the perfection of both is
similar. The contractors for the funeral ceremonies
who undertook to prepare the tombs would not certainly
have found the sculptors they needed in the locality
itself : the people who had hitherto lived at El-Amarna
were too poor to aspire to the luxury of a decorated
tomb. The larger number of workmen must have been
procured partly from Thebes and partly from Hermopo-
lis, the nearest city; the provincials were naturally
less skilful than the others, and, in fact, after a visit to
the tombs of El-Amarna, we willingly admit that heir
technique is rough and ? vkward. They possess nothing
that can be compared, t ^n a long way off, with the
bas-reliefs of Houiya or of Khamhait at Thebes. They
please the eye by the variety of their subjects, and by
the freedom of their method. According to tradition
the dead, whose last dwelling-place they furnished,
wished, in recalling the principal acts of their life, to
assure their doubles of the possession of the rank and
dignities they had enjoyed in this world ; as they ought
to find them again with the god of Khouitatonou, they
had their career at Khouitatonou painted, their inter-
72 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
views with the king, the rewards they had received, the
ceremonial which had accompanied their visits to court.
It is thus a question of archaeology, and not one of
evolution in the development of Egyptian art. The
honest artisans who covered the walls with their sketches
only thought to interpret to the best of their ability the
patterns that the master-designers, the ganouatiou, gave
out to them, who themselves had only fitted the motives
used at Thebes or in the rest of Egypt to the worship
of Atonou and to the new city.
The town prospered while its founder supported it;
but that was for a very short time. Petrie and Griffith
have cleverly succeeded in restoring the chronology
of that epoch; they reckon that the king died in the
eighteenth year of his reign. His daughters succeeded
him in the order of primogeniture, or rather the hus-
bands of his daughters. First Samankhkeriya, then
Toutanoukhamanou, then Ai. Khouniatonou had only
had one sincere believer in his religion — himself; when
he died the zeal of the others cooled, and the wor-
ship of Amon again prevailed. The work of numerous
generations is not to be destroyed in a day, and
Thebes had too long held the first rank for the caprice
or hatred of one man to overturn her so quickly.
Khouniatonou determined to replace her by a new city,
and had he lived he would doubtless have persisted to
the end in his desire to displace her. His successors,
Thebans by origin, vassals of Amon by birth, had no
motive in persevering. Samankhkeriya had probably
only a very brief reign, but Toutanoukhamanou occupied
the throne for some time, and he had not reigned for
more than three or four years before he abandoned " the
Horizon of the Disk " and the Disk itself. He returned
to Thebes, took part in the ceremonies of the old wor-
ship; his brother-in-law At, who succeeded him, acted
in the same manner. The court followed their example.
A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL 73
and the town faded away as rapidly as it had blossomed
forth. The life of the streets stopped, the palaces and
temples were deserted, the tombs remained unfinished or
unoccupied; its patron became again what he had been
formerly, an adventurer god relegated to the third or
fourth rank in the Egyptian Pantheon. The town
vegetated for a short time longer, thanks to the in-
dustries which had been planted there ; then the enamel
factories were closed and the workmen migrated to
Thebes or Hermopolis. *' The Horizon of Atonou " was
erased from the list of nomes, and soon nothing was
left of what had for a moment been the capital of the
empire, but a heap of falling ruins and two or three
fellaheen villages scattered about the western bank of
the Nile. The royal palace was not only abandoned, it
was deliberately and purposely dismantled and despoiled
of the works of art it contained. Only valueless objects
were left behind, and among them a portion of the
diplomatic correspondence carried on by Amen6thes III
and Amenothes IV with the governors of Syria, or with
the independent sovereigns of Mitani, Assyria and
Chaldaea.
A fortunate chance revealed to us the history of this
ephemeral greatness, but during the forty centuries that
ancient Egypt lasted how many of these capitals of a
day must there not have been, called to life by a
Pharaoh's caprice and left to decay by a Pharaoh's
disdain ! The sovereigns who built the pyramids had
each theirs, and Memphis itself, before becoming the
metropolis of the whole country, was merely the
temporary residence of Pioupi I, one of the most cele-
brated monarchs of the Vlth Dynasty. The valley
was sown with these dead or dying cities, and their
fate suggested matter for melancholy reflections to
moralists and poets: "I have heard what happened
to our ancestors : their walls are destroyed, their place
h
«3i -". 4 ■»
74 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
is vanished,'' A few escaped destruction, for example the
residences of Sanouosrit (Ousirtasen) II and of Amen-
emhait III, which Petrie has explored near the entrance
of Fayoum. The houses there are almost intact, whole
quarters of the city are still standing, and furniture
abounds, chiefly that of the poor or of the lower middle
classes, very valuable to us from its antiquity, for it
goes back further than the thirteenth century B.C.
The ruins of El-Amarna have suffered greatly from
time and from men, but we know the exact date at
which the town was built, as well as that at which
it was abandoned, the circumstances that favoured
its rise and hastened its fall, the god worshipped
there, the life led there by the people. The history
of Egypt, when contemplated from a distance, seems
uniform, accidents are effaced and disappear; but if we
approach nearer, a multitude of details become detached
from its course, and a multitude of incidents which
break the monotony are distinguished. Leaving aside
murders of princes and the dramas of the harem,
Egypt's religious or political revolutions have been as
numerous and as unexpected as those of modern empires.
We know almost exactly what happened at El-Amarna
under Amenothes IV; many similar episodes will come
to light when excavations carried on as conscientiously
as those of Flinders Petrie shall compel the earth to
restore the documents it has so long kept hidden.
VIII
THE TEMPLE OF DEIr EL-BAHAr!
Travellers who visited the ruins of Thebes five or
six years ago doubtless remember what a strangely
desolate aspect the valley of Deir El-Bahari then pre-
sented. Portions of walls were seen sticking out of the
sand in inextricable confusion, fragments of statues and
columns lay about in company with two terraces placed
one on the other, abutting on porticoes more than half
buried under the rubbish; a vault might be seen, the
dislocated blocks of which threatened to fall at the least
movement; close by were granite doors framed in the
ruins of delicately-sculptured white limestone partition
walls, and dominating all stood a miserable tower of
dried bricks of a dirty grey colour, the only fragment
then standing of a Copt monastery built on the founda-
tions of the pagan edifice. The physiognomy of the
site is now completely changed. The tower has been
demolished, and the sand no longer hides the balus-
trades and columns. On the northern side of the valley
a portico has been dug out of marvellous elegance and
exquisite proportions; the best period of Greek art
produced nothing of greater delicacy or charm. Naville
and his lieutenants in three winters brought to light
perhaps the most original monuments that are our
legacy from the Pharaohs of the great Theban Dynas-
ties. Mariette began the attack, and the result gained
made him persevere in his enterprise even when money
was lacking; Naville, better equipped, with more
75
h
76 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
resources and less burdened with administrative work,
will leave nothing for future students to do.^
What has been found is the mausoleum of two kings,
Thoutmosis I and Thoutmosis II, built by themselves,
and of a queen, Hatshopsouitou, daughter of one and
wife of the other. Hatshopsouitou appropriated it to
herself, and allowed the men of the family only the
strictly necessary space. On the death of her husband
she reigned alone, and desiring to show posterity what a
woman could do when entrusted with the administration
of an empire, she engraved and painted pictures on the
walls illustrating in detail her principal acts. Mariette
published nearly all that illustrate the maritime expedi-
tion to the land of incense; Naville unearthed others I
completing those which describe in detail the memorable |
voyage. Hatshopsouitou is anxious to tell us herself |
that one day when she was praying in the temple of
Amon, ** her supplications ascended to the throne of the
master of Karnak, and in the Holy of Holies an order
was heard, a command of the god to explore the ways
that led to Pouanit, to traverse the roads leading to the
* Ports of Incense.' " The Theban priests could only
procure the essences required for the sacrifices through
foreign traders; and thus the essences were exposed to
injury in the slow transit in Africa, and were soiled by
the contact of impure hands. Besides, the traders con-
fused, under the single name anatiou, substances of very
different origin and quality, several of which could
scarcely be regarded as perfumes, or were reputed not
to be pleasing to the gods. One kind that is still found
in Somaliland, and there only, pleased them more than all
others; but '* no one any longer ascends to the * Forts,*
none of the Egyptians, and if the ports are spoken
of, it is only from hearsay." They were remembered
1 G. Naville : Detr El-Bahart, 1 892-1 893 ; Delr El-Bahart, Part I, |
1893-1894; Detr El-Bahari, Part II, 1894-1895, London.
TEMPLE OF DEtR EL-BAHARt 77
as a region situated in the distant south or east. Amon
undertook to describe it and reveal its whereabouts.
" The * Ports ' form a secret district of Tonoutir; it is,
in fact, a place of delight. I created it, and wish to con-
duct your Majesty thither, so that incense can be taken
at will and vessels laden with it in all joy, living trees
of incense and all the products of that land." Hat-
shopsouitou chose five sound ships, equipped them in
the most approved fashion, loaded them with goods
likely to find favour with the savages, and launched
them in the Red Sea on the track of the incense.
We do not know from what port the squadron set out,
nor how many days it took to reach Pouanit. It passed
Saouakin, Massaouah; it touched at the Ilim, who in-
habited the latitudes of Bab-el-Mandeb ; it crossed the
strait, and at last reached the coast of Somali, the land
which produced the incense. The barbarous region
visited later by Greek and Roman merchants stretched
from the bay of Zeilah to Ras-Hafoun. The first stations
they encountered on issuing from the Red Sea, Avails,
Malao, Moundos, Mosyllon were unsafe, exposed road-
steads; but beyond Mosyllon they found several creeks
(wadys), of which the last, the Elephant river, situated
between Ras-el-Fil and Cape Guardafui, seems to have
allowed of ships of shallow draught ascending it. It
was there, probably, that Hatshopsouitou's sailors made
land. They went up the river as far as the point where
the tides are no longer felt, and stopped in sight of
a village scattered along the bank amid sycamores and
palms. Round huts were to be seen with conical
roofs, and no opening except the door; they were
perched on piles as a protection from wild beasts or
floods, and they were entered by movable ladders.
Oxen lying under the trees chewed the cud. The natives
were tall, slender, and of a colour varying between brick-
red and a brown so dark as to be almost black. The
78 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
beard ended in a point, and the hair was sometimes cut
short and sometimes arranged in rows of small curls,
or fell over the shoulders in thin locks. The men's
costume was merely a waist-cloth, the women's a yellow
sleeveless robe, tied at the waist, falling half-way down
the legs. The commander of the squadron disembarked
at first with eight soldiers. He displayed the various
gifts on a low table : five bracelets, two gold collars, a
poniard with its sheath and belt, a battle-axe, eleven
strings of glass beads. The people, dazzled by the sight
of so many precious things, with their chief at their
head, ran to meet him, and showed a very natural aston-
ishment. *' How," they asked, " did you reach this
country unknown to men ? Have you descended by the
paths of the sky, or have you sailed by water on the land
of Tonoutir? You have followed the road of the Sun,
for no one can be out of the way of the king of the land
of Egypt, and his breath is our life." Their chief was
named Parihou, and was distinguished from his subjects
by a boomerang he brandished in his hand, by his
dagger and glass necklace; his right leg was hidden
by a sort of sheath made of rings of a yellow metal,
probably gold. His wife, Atoui, possessed the sort of
beauty which is pleasing in those countries, a greasy
puffiness in which the lines of the body are lost under
a mass of flesh. The first courtesies exchanged, the
Egyptians began on serious business. They set up a
tent in which they stored the wares they had brought,
and to prevent temptation surrounded it with a cordon
of troops. The principal conditions of the bargain were
settled at a banquet; each article was paid for immedi-
ately on delivery. For several days there was a con-
tinual procession of persons driving donkeys laden with
produce. The purchases of the Egyptians consisted of
a little of everything : elephants' teeth, gold, ebony,
cassia, myrrh, baboons and apes, greyhounds, leopard
TEMPLE OF DEIr EL-BAHARI 79
skins, oxen, slaves, even thirty-one incense-trees up-
rooted with their mould and transplanted in baskets.
The stowage was long and difficult; when there was no
more room on board and the ships were filled to over-
flowing, they set sail and steered for the north.
On their return the queen held high festival in
their honour; the Theban troops came out to meet them ;
the royal flotilla escorted them to the landing-stage of
the temple, where they formed in procession to go and
offer their booty to the god. The good people of Thebes,
assembled to see them, admired the procession, the bar-
barous hostages, the incense-trees, the incense itself, the
cats, the giraffe, the oxen, which the chronicles of the
time, with the usual official exaggeration, reckon by
hundreds and thousands. The trees were planted at
Deir El-Bahari, and a sacred garden was improvised for
them; square trenches were dug in the rock and filled
with earth, and being well watered they flourished there.
In the course of his excavations Naville found the drain-
ing wells, the mud they contained, the vegetable rubbish
heaped in them. The big piles of fragrant vegetable
matter became the object of special care ; Hatshopsouitou
*' gave a silver-gilt bushel measure to gauge the mass of
gums, the first time the perfumes were measured for
Amon, lord of Karnak, master of the heaven, and pre-
sent to him the marvels that Pouanit produced. Thot,
the lord of Hermopolis, registered the amounts in writ-
ing, the goddess Safkhitaboui audited the accounts. Her
Majesty made an aromatic essence with her own hands
with which to anoint her person ; she exhaled the odour
of the divine dew, its perfume penetrated to Pouanit,
her skin shone like gold, and her face like the stars in
the large Festival Hall." The claims of piety satisfied,
those of coquetry had their turn, and the woman reap-
peared beneath the monarch. The bas-reliefs of Deir El-
Bahari show the little squadron going with full saiJ
8o NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
towards the unknown, its arrival at the end of its
voyage, the meeting with the natives, the emphatic
palavers, the bargain freely concluded, and thanks to
the minute care with which the smallest details of the
action are drawn, we assist as if we had been present at
the various operations comprised in the maritime life
not only of the Egyptians, but of other Eastern nations.
The Phoenicians, when they adventured into the distant
waters of the Mediterranean, must certainly have
equipped and managed their ships in a similar manner.
The scenery of the places on the Grecian and Asiatic
coasts on which they disembarked is not the same as
that of Pouanit, but they used the same objects of barter,
and they acted in regard to the tribes of Europe exactly
as the Egyptians did in regard to the barbarians of the
Red Sea.
The honour of discovering this chapter of history
belongs almost entirely to Mariette.^ One thing, how-
ever, belongs to Naville and to him alone : a series
of pictures illustrating and describing the circum-
stances that preceded and accompanied the birth of
the queen. The action passes partly among the gods,
partly among mortals. We learn how one night the
Princess Ahmosis, wife of the Pharaoh, Thoutmosis I,
reposing in the harem, was suddenly awakened by a
bright light and a strong perfume. The god Amonra
had deserted his sanctuary of Karnak for her; after
honouring her with his caresses, he announced to her
that a child would be born of his divine love who would
have a glorious reign and a long life " on the throne of
the Horus of the living." He then vanished, and in the
next picture Ahmosis had reached the term of her preg-
nancy. The guardian divinities of women in travail
lead her gently to her bed of pain, and the expression
of fatigue on her features, the languishing charm of her
* Mariette: Detr El-Bahariy Leipzig, 1876.
TEMPLE OF DEIr EL-BAHARI 8i
whole person, makes her portrait a fine piece of sculp-
ture. The child, the daughter, who, in the near future,
will be the Queen Hatshopsouitou, enters the world amid
shouts of joy; propitious genii receive her; goddesses
give her suck, gods give her a royal education. Years
pass by; she is the heir of the Egyptian throne, the
successor appointed to reign. Her father, Thoutmosis,
summons the delegates of the country and presents
her to them. He enumerates her titles in long flowery
orations, and places the pschent on her head; she is
thenceforth Pharaoh, and she tries her best to dissimu-
late that she is a woman. She modifies her name, Hat-
shopsouitou, which means the chief of the august favour-
ites among the women^ by a masculine termination that
changes the signification into the chief of the august
favourites. In the public ceremonies she wears the cos-
tume of a man; on the monuments her chest is bared,
her bosom flat, her hips slender, she wears a short waist*
cloth, the diadem or helmet is placed on smooth hair, a
beard is fastened to her chin ; indeed, she keeps nothing
of the woman except the habit of speaking of herself
in the feminine gender on the inscriptions. These curi-
ous scenes of divine marriage, destined to attach the
child who is to be the legitimate ruler of the city directly
to the god of the city, are found in two other monu-
ments of a different epoch, and perhaps other examples
will be discovered ; in the sanctuary of Louxor it is the
Pharaoh Amenothes HI ; in that of Erment it is Ptolemy
Caesarion, the son of Caesar and Cleopatra, whose birth
is explained in this mysterious manner.
According to the theory of that time, the king
descended directly from the Sun, the god who created
the world, and was the first to reign over the valley of
the Nile. As no one who did not touch the divine race
at some point could be Pharaoh, the founders of Dynas-
ties supplied the deficiencies of their nobility by invent-
6
82 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
ing extraordinary genealogies which attached them from
on high to a former Dynasty, especially by marriage
with one of the numerous princesses who belonged to
the harem of their predecessors. The nobility of each
member of a family and his right to power were commen-
surate with the quality of the solar blood which flowed
in his veins; he who inherited it from both father
and mother took precedence of him who held it only
from either father or mother. But one of the most
strictly observed of Egyptian laws intervenes there to
establish distinctions which no longer hold in our civil-
ization. The most sacred marriage was that between
brother and sister, and it acquired the highest degree of j
perfection if the brother and sister in question were |
themselves the children of a similar marriage. This
peculiarity of Egyptian manners, which seems to us a
refinement of incest, was regarded as an institution of
divine origin, most fitting to preserve the purity of the
race. It produced important consequences for the his-
tory of the country, and a great number of legal disposi-
tions or fictions destined to palliate its effect on questions
of the royal succession, or to supplement the lack of
legitimacy which it brought in its train, to the detriment
of the heirs male. If, for example, as his heir, a sove-
reign had a son born of a slave or of a concubine of
inferior rank, chosen at hazard among the people, and a
daughter born of his union with one of his sisters by
his father and mother, she was really the heir designate,
and the boy took lower rank. They were married, how-
ever, but their children, having as father a prince crossed
with the common people, and mortal, were only hybrids
compounded of less pure matter. Then the ancestral
god had to interfere. Amon deigned to descend to
earth, and taking the shape of the husband, united him-
self with the woman. The offspring of these supernatural
relations was of the pure race of the Sun, and could give
TEMPLE OF DEtR EL-BAHARt
83
birth to legitimate princes or princesses. Thoutmosis I
, was only of half solar blood, for his mother was an
obscure concubihe, and his wife Ahmosis was born of
! brother and sister parents, King Amenothes I and
I Queen Ahhotpou II; to compensate for his inferiority
j the assistance of Amon was called in, and therefore we
see at Deir El-Bahar! the strange scenes discovered by
Naville.
IX
A TRILINGUAL INSCRIPTION IN PRAISE OF C. CORNELIUS
GALLUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT
It seems very unlikely that a hieroglyphic inscription
could help to determine a date in the life of a Latin
author; but such an event has just occurred. Cap-
tain Lyons, to whom the Egyptian Government recently
entrusted the examination of the sub-structure of the
island of Philae, came across, in the course of his work,
two pieces of a sandstone stela, used at that time by the
inhabitants to support the wall of a house. They pre-
serve the remains of several inscriptions, one above the
other, the first in Egyptian, the second in Latin, and
the third in Greek. All are in praise of C. Cornelius
Gallus, son of Cneius, knight, in his lifetime, statesman,
general, and poet. He was born at Frejus, in Gaul, and
was a school-fellow of Virgil; he was thirty-nine years
old when the favour of Augustus appointed him the
first Roman governor of the province of Egypt. The
successive defeats of Cleopatra and of Antony caused
rebellions that it was his chief duty to quell. The task
was easy in the neighbourhood of Alexandria and
Memphis, the districts nearest to the sea; but things
were more troublesome in the Said, and the rebels were
only put down after some hard fighting.
The views held by the races who dwelt there were dm
to their political condition. In spite of ten centuries
of humiliation, they could not forget that they had for-
merly ruled the whole valley, and that their city o
84
A TRILINGUAL INSCRIPTION 85
Thebes had possessed the world. When, after the fall
of Ramses, the supremacy devolved on the cities of the
Delta, Memphis, Tanis, Bubastis, Sais, they desired to
have their own lords, first the high-priests of Amon,
then princes in whom the blood of the high-priests was
mingled with that of the Ethiopian Pharaohs. They
constituted a kind of autonomous state, semi-theocratic
and semi-warlike, hostile to the usurpers of the north,
and continually fighting them to defend their independ-
ence. Psammetichus, Necho, Amasis, the most cele-
brated representatives of the last national Dynasties,
were not obeyed on account of their personal title, but
because they married princesses in whom alone the
South recognized the right to reign over them ; while
elsewhere they were recognized in their own right, in
the Thebaid they were tolerated by right of their wives.
When the last of them died without issue, there were
found among the descendants of the old feudal nobility
persons who declared that some far-oflf alliance united
them to one or other of the families that had formerly
worn the double crown ; they entered upon the heritage
of the Thebans, and became the champions of Pharaonic
legitimacy against foreign conquerors, Persians, or
Macedonians. The fellaheen of the Said seemed un-
touched by outside influences. They submitted to them
because they did not feel themselves strong enough to
throw them off, and outwardly accepted the modifica-
tions imposed by them on their political or private life.
They paid the tax, rendered military service, conformed
to the rites of the new administration, wrote the names
of the Achaemenidas and Ptolemies at the head of their
decrees, or on the walls of their temples ; but their obedi-
ence ended with these outward observances, and they
kept to their former customs and ideas in everything not
expressly commanded by the foreign governments.
When the Greek strategus had collected the taxes, and
86 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
settled business about which they were compelled to con-
sult him, they returned to their usual way of life, which
contained all the forms used in the Egypt of the Thout-
mosis or Ramses. The Greek was no longer the real
head of the state for them ; the true ruler was the noble,
or the hereditary priest, and, if he chanced to have a
few drops of the blood royal in his veins, he was the
rightful king whom they reverenced secretly until the
day when some fortunate circumstance might give
them courage to declare him king de factOy and to
crown him publicly. At least a century and a half
before the death of Cleopatra two of those claimants
were successful in rousing the city of Thebes itself,
and they succeeded each other on the throne while the
Ptolemies were quarrelling in the north. They were
veritable Pharaohs, with cartouches, sceptres in the
hand, the uraeus on the forehead, the traditional helmets
and crowns; they held sway only over a half-dozen
towns or villages, but the first princes of the Xlth or
XVI Ith Dynasties had begun by being equally unim- ;
portant petty kings, and their original weakness did j
not prevent them from making the nomes into a united i
state, and then forming an immense empire? They !
had not time to strengthen and extend their authority; j
Ptolemy Epiphanes laid his hand on Thebes, and j
chastised the rebels in a cruel manner. He did not j
succeed in crushing the spirit of independence that j
animated the land, and there were rebellions after his [
death, the last of which was only put down by Ptolemy i
Auletes at the cost of a bloody war. Thebes sue- j
cumbed, after a long siege, in 67 ; her walls were razed !
to the ground, her population scattered. She never I
recovered the blow then inflicted.
Strabo attributes the insurrection which broke out
against the Romans in the south directly after the con-
quest to the burden of the heavy taxes. It is more prob-
A TRILINGUAL INSCRIPTION 87
able that the nomes of the Said profited by the disorder
preceding Cleopatra's death to drive out the Greek
garrisons and restore the local Dynasties. When Alex-
andria was taken, and Egypt annexed to the Empire,
they naturally refused to pay to the new master the
tribute they had refused to the old. They had, doubt-
less, only confused ideas as to what Rome was; they
merely knew that it was situated somewhere beyond
the seas, and believed that the distance would save them
from her attacks. Gallus was forced to carry on the
campaign with great zeal in order to gain possession
of a people who would not bow to his authority : ** C.
Cornelius, son of Cneius Gallus, Roman knight, the
first prefect of Alexandria and Egypt after the defeat
of the kings by Caesar, son of the divine Julius, for
having subdued the rebellion of the ThebaTd in a fort-
night, during which he twice defeated the enemy in
drawn battle, for having taken five towns, Boresis,
Coptos, Keramik^, Diospolis the Great, Ophiaeon, and
having killed the leaders of those rebellions, for having
been the first to lead an army beyond the cataract of the
Nile, to which place neither the standards of the Roman
people, nor of the Egyptian kings, had penetrated, after
having subdued the Thebaid, a terror common to all
the kings, heard near Philae the envoys of the king of
the Ethiopians, received that king under the protection
of the Roman people, placed a vassal prince in the Tria-
contaschene on the frontier of Ethiopia [erected this
stela] to the gods of the country, and propitious to the
Nile [as a thanksgiving]." This refers to the taking
possession and the organization of the territories that for
nearly seven centuries to come belonged to the Caesars,
and then to the Byzantine Emperors. The Pharaoh of
Ethiopia wished to conciliate his neighbour, and sud-
denly dispatched an embassy to him to knit up amicable
relations. Gallus pretended to see a sign of subjection
88 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
in this proceeding, but the different terms he employs
in the Latin and in the Greek in order to express his
thought, prove that he knew the truth. In one he
speaks of the protection and guardianship accepted by
the sovereign ; in the other he merely observes that the
king has proposed to him to be his guest, and he gives
the pretended declaration of vassalage its character of
an offer of consulship. Dion Cassius explains that the
enemies of Cornelius Gallus later accused him to Augus-
tus of affecting the style of a king rather than that of a
simple governor, and, in support of their words, quoted
the inscriptions engraved on the facing of the pyramids
of Gizeh. Displaced, recalled to Rome, and feeling him-
self a ruined man, he killed himself to escape punish-
ment, the first example of those suicides that increased
so greatly from the time of the rule of Tiberius.
Augustus complained that he had been robbed of his
vengeance. The inscriptions of the pyramids no longer
exist, but those of Philse offer a good sample of what
they must have been, and their tone shows that the man
had a good opinion of himself. The language is firm,
and the turns of expression exaggerated, as in most of
the inscriptions of that period; but in reading them
it is easy to imagine that Augustus may have felt some
anxiety about the fidelity of a general who knew so
well how to extol his own merits.
It is difficult for a contemporary not to be reminded
of that more modern inscription found in a good posi-
tion on the inner post of the great door at Philae.
Eighteen centuries after the Gaul, Cornelius, other
Gauls, sent by chance to Nubia, and wishing to leave
behind a souvenir of their presence, recorded in lapidary
style how in *' the year VI of the Republic, the 12th
Messidor, a French army, commanded by Bonaparte,
landed at Alexandria. Twenty days later the army,
having put the Mamelukes to flight at the Pyramids,
A TRILINGUAL INSCRIPTION 89
Desaix, commander of the first division, pursued them
beyond the cataracts, where he arrived the 13th
Nivose of the year VII." The French inscription is
simpler than the Latin, but the sentiment at base is the
same in both. In this age of rapid communication we
regard the First Cataract as a place rather distant from
London or Paris, but to be reached in ten days by any
one who understands how to arrange the journey. The
temples of Philae are visited by periodical caravans of
cheap tourists, and every winter the Pronaos is the scene
of almost as many picnics as of offerings and sacrifices
in pagan times. In the time of Augustus the island was
literally at the end of the world, and if it was not classed
among fabulous lands, it was placed at the extreme
borders of the actual world, at the point where incredible
marvels began. Any number of stories were told of the
height of the cataract, the volume of the water, its
deafening noise, the boldness with which the dwellers
on the banks descended it; beyond were the deserts of
Africa, whence some new monster constantly appeared,
regions haunted by sphinxes and onocentaurs, overrun
by tribes of Oreillards and Sciapodes. Desaix's French-
men did not believe those tales, but the Voyage of
Denon, or the Volumes of the Description, betray the
influence of those memories of classical antiquity, and
the feelings with which they planted their flags on the
rocks where the legions had formerly planted their
eagles. Both the Romans and the French had success-
fully accomplished in a few weeks what had seemed an
almost impossible enterprise. We can well understand
that they did not wish the memory of it to be lost.
Cornelius Gallus narrated it in three languages, so
that none who came after him should fail to understand.
The stela must have had a good position, and above the
inscription was a picture which attracted attention; it
presented to our admiration a rider crushing fallen
h
90 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
barbarians under his horse's hoofs. It would be inter-
esting to know the exact spot where the fragments were
found; the details of the discovery might help us to
learn if the stela was spared, and if it survived its
builder, or if Augustus ordered it to be destroyed by the
new prefect, so that the memory of the victory might be
wiped out in the very place where the conqueror had
desired to perpetuate it.
ON AN EGYPTIAN MONUMENT CONTAINING THE NAME
OF ISRAEL 1
The gentle Menephtah, King of Egypt, was at least
once in his life greatly alarmed when the Libyans
invaded the eastern districts of the Delta, and pushed
their vanguard as far as the neighbourhood of Mem-
phis. He assembled his army, the native soldiers, the
negro and Syrian battalions, his Shardanes guards; he
marched to the encounter of the enemy, made all pre-
parations for a decisive battle, but at the moment of
entering on it he was seized with a very natural emotion,
or his generals were for him. In his youth he had
followed the army under the command of his father,
the famous Ramses, and had borne himself in the
fight as bravely as any, but forty years had elapsed
since then ; he was no longer young, and had laid aside
arms, and might well ask what sort of a figure he would
now make on the war chariot in active fight. But the
king was eager to lead the troops himself, and all who
had known Ramses recalled the story of his prowess
at Quodshou, when, alone with his squire Manouna, he
charged the chariots of the Khati eight times in succes-
sion. It was a young man's exploit that the seventy-
years-old Menephtah could scarcely repeat, and yet
his absence at the moment of the decisive blow might
disconcert the soldiers and diminish their courage. The
gods who in those days interfered in the affairs of this
world much more than is believed, intervened to bring
him out of the awkward position and to save his honour
^ W. Flinders Petrie : "Egypt and Israel," in the Contemporary
Review^ May 1896 ; reprinted in Six Temples at Thebes^ London, 1897.
91
92 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
and dignity. The old king thought he saw in a dream
a gigantic figure of Phtah rise up before him and pre-
vent him from advancing. *' Remain at Memphis," it
cried, and held out to him the curved sword of the
Pharaohs. "Be not discouraged!" His Majesty was
naturally surprised. *' But what am I to do?" " Send
on your infantry," replied the god, "and let a large
number of charioteers go in advance to the borders of
the territory of Piriou." Menephtah did as Phtah said.
He stayed in the town, sent his generals into danger,
and when they had won the battle, returned triumphant
to Thebes.
Priests, nobles, citizens, the poorer folk, everybody
welcomed him with sincere enthusiasm, and the court
historiographers took a great deal of trouble to invent
new epithets in order to show posterity what a great
warrior he was. The journal of the campaign was
posted up in many places; in the temple of Memphis
out of gratitude for the service rendered by Phtah,
in the temple of Amon at Karnak, and in all places
where narratives of the sort would be likely not to pass
unnoticed. In one of the edifices built a century and a
half before by the celebrated Amenothes HI, on the
left bank of the Nile, there was a colossal stela of grey
granite. Menephtah took possession of it, turned the
side which bore the panegyric of his predecessor to the
wall, and engraved on the unused side an inscription
lately discovered by Flinders Petrie. It is a long hymn
in his praise, in a style at times emphatic; we read
of the arrival of the Libyans, their defeat, their head-
long flight, the impression of terror produced on the
tribes of the desert by the news of the disaster. " Their
bands repeated his exploits to each other : * Nothing
similar has struck us since the age of Ra, the Sun I*
And all the old men said to their sons : * Unfortunate
are the Libyans, their life is over. We can no longer
I
AN EGYPTIAN MONUMENT 93
walk across our fields without fear, our security has been
snatched from us in a single day; the Tahonou have
been, as it were, devoured by the flames in a single year,
Soutkhou, our god, has deserted our general, and his
encampments have been taken by assault. There is no
one to carry the bales in these days; to hide is all that
is left us, and we shall only find safety within walls.*
Egypt, on the contrary, was full of gaiety, and its
inhabitants cried out to one another : * Now we can
move and march at ease along the roads, for there is
no more any fear in men's hearts.* The fortified posts
are abandoned, the citadels are opened, the police patrols
sleep instead of going their rounds, the loopholes of
the walls are empty in the sunshine until their guards
awake. The soldiers are sleeping, the sentries and
ghafirs are sowing in the meadows, the cattle return
to the pastures, there are no fugitives on the high waters
of the river, and people are no longer heard screaming
in the night: 'Stop I' or 'Come, cornel* Every one
goes singing, and there is neither lamentation nor sigh-
ing; the cities are as if freshly restored, and he who
reaps will eat of his own harvest." And abroad, Egypt,
believed by her Asiatic rivals to be ruined, regained
her prestige at one stroke. " The great and the noble
are brought low; none among them lifts his head any
longer among the nomads, for, now that the Libyans
are destroyed, the Khati are peaceful, the land of Canaan
is reduced to subjection, the people of Ascalon and of
Gezer are led into captivity, the city of lanouamim is
laid low, those of Israilou are destroyed, there is no
particle of them left, Kharou, Southern Syria, is [sad]
as the widows of Egypt, and all the lands are united
I in peace,*' under the hand of Pharaoh.
In hieroglyphic characters Israilou is the exact
equivalent of the biblical Israel, and it is the first time
that the name appears on the Egyptian monuments.
I
94 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
For the past sixty years many attempts have been made
to find it, or for lack of it, one of the terms formerly
employed to indicate all or part of the Hebrews. The
most important was that of Chabas, who, about 1864,
seeing certain people called the Apouriou mentioned
several times over in the documents of the time of the
Ramses, recognized in them the Hebrews; these
Apouriou made bricks, and as they were slaves, helpers,
or workmen of the Egyptians, it was simple enough to
recall the early chapters of the Book of Exodus, where
the misery of the descendants of Jacob is described in
forcible terms. The identification, which was very
favourably welcomed at first, is now rejected by most
of those who have knowledge in such matters. Later
it was noticed in different quarters that many of the
names enumerated in the lists of Thoutmosis III, Josh-
oupilouy Jakob-tlouy contained the element Joseph or
Jacob, joined to one of the words which express the con-
cept of the divinity among Semitic peoples, and it is
concluded that they preserved the memory of at least two
of the clans which later constituted the Hebrew people,
those of Joseph-el and of Jacob-el.^ It is clear then how
very little information about the most ancient history
of the Jewish race is to be gathered from the inscrip-
tions. It is not that the names of cities or nations
mentioned in the Bible are lacking in the annals of a
Thoutmosis or a Ramses, but they always apply to
towns which were in existence before the occupation of
the Land of Promise, or to tribes which suffered from
that occupation and tried to prevent it. Gaza figures in
the catalogue of them, as well as Ascalon, Joppa, Gezer,
Mageddo, Taanak, Damas, the Amorrheans, the Hit-
tites; Jerusalem herself reappeared under the original
form of Ourousalimou, and it is possible to reconstruct
something of her history in the fourteenth century B.C.
^ Cf. Groff : CEuvres diver ses^ Vol. i, pp. 1-23.
AN EGYPTIAN MONUMENT 95
It has all served and still serves to re-establish piece by
piece the stage on which Israel afterwards played the
chief part ; Israel itself, and even its name, is obstinately
hidden. There is nothing strange in that. By the
side of Egypt, Chaldasa, and Syria, Israel was a very
insignificant personage, even when ruled by the most
energetic of his kings; all the more then when he was
still only a serf lodged in a corner of the Delta, and
then a wanderer in the Arabian Desert. He was lost
in the crowd of supernumeraries, and if circumstances
drew the attention of his companions or rulers to him,
it was only for a moment, between two events which
then seemed of more vital interest. The inscriptions or
the annals have only fugitive records of him, but the
terrible ravages undergone by the temples of Egypt
make it scarcely surprising if we do not find much about
him in the fragments of inscriptions that have escaped
destruction. The most extraordinary thing is not that
we should find nothing about the Hebrews, but rather
that we should find anything.
The mention of Israilou in Menephtah's inscription is
then a piece of good luck; but what historical benefit
is to be derived from it? Appearing as it does in a
flood of pure rhetoric, it teaches us two certain facts,
the existence of a tribe of Israel, and a defeat recently
sustained by that tribe. The scribe who composed
Menephtah's hymn, employs in describing the check
expressions which might lead us to see in it a disaster,
but it is only one of the exaggerations common to his
kind. The inscriptions are filled with nations that each
Pharaoh in his turn annihilated without their sufTering
much harm, and for a tribe to have lost a few men in a
skirmish was sufficient for a court poet to pay the
sovereign the compliment of having destroyed it.
Where did these Israilou live ? What misdeeds of theirs
had drawn on them the chariots and bowmen of Egypt ?
h
96 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
The order in which the other peoples are mentioned
indicates that they inhabited Southern Syria ; they come
after Askalani, the Ascalonians, after the Gezer that
still exists near Ascalon at Tell-Djezer, after lanouamim
that other documents seem to locate in the mountains
of Judah, and it only remains for us to imagine that
they are the whole or a part of the children of Israel
who took refuge near Kadesh-Barnea, after the exodus
from Egypt. It would then be but a short step to
declare that the disaster of which they are said to be the
victims is the persecution of the '* Pharaoh who knew
not Joseph." In those five words we should have an
allusion to the Egyptian version of the Exodus current
at the court of Menephtah. In fact an old tradition
identifies Menephtah with the prince who was hostile
to the Jews and quarrelled with Moses. Other hypo-
theses are possible, and have been examined by students
with the text of the inscription before them. Flinders
Petrie, for instance, declares that Israel w^as at that
time divided into two principal groups, one of which
had come down to the banks of the Nile and was living
there at the time of the Libyan war, while the other had
stayed in Palestine and continued to lead a nomadic
life between Hebron and the plains of Jezreel. The
Israel forgotten in the land would be the Israel whom
Menephtah punished so severely, and of whose existence
he tells us. Personally I have no reason to adopt one
version rather than the other; I merely record the fact
that Israel is revealed to us for the first time on a con-
temporary, or very nearly contemporary, document con-
cerning deeds related by Israelite chroniclers in the
Book of Exodus, and express regret that the mention
of it by the Egyptian writers should be so brief.
I fear that others will not be contented with so slight
a result, and that the five words of the Egyptian pane-
gyric will become the subject of a whole literature.
tf
XI
COPTOS
There was not much to be seen of Coptos when I
visited it for the first time fifteen years ago. It con-
sisted of two or three villages of low huts, a few irregular
ounds of earth on which were copings of walls either
f brick or of small stones; in the centre was a vast,
most empty, site where a temple had once stood;
n the west were the remains of a granite door in fine
haraonic work, a bridge thrown over a canal, and inter-
cting dikes, while on the east and north was an
mense Roman rampart, flanked by towers partly built
the walls, and near one of them an enormous breach,
ubtless the opening through which Diocletian's
gions forced their way into the town sixteen centuries
ago. A few blows of the pick-axe brought fine copper
tensils of the Coptic period to the surface here and
ere, which should be still in the museum. About
1884 I cleared out, in five or six days, a temple corridor
here the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Caligula were
ut over Greek sgrajfite drawn by pilgrims in the time
of one of the later Ptolemies. Whenever I spent a few
hours there, I picked up important inscriptions, statues,
stelae, bronzes, stuffs, hundreds of small objects. I
should have organized extensive works there had I
possessed a little more money than the ;^iioo or ;^I200
of which the budget for excavations then consisted.
Flinders Petrie has realized what was only an empty
dream for me. In the course of six weeks he found
97
h
98 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
enough material there to enable him to write the history
of the ancient town and of one of its chief temples.^
Coptos is situated at a little distance from the Nile,
at the starting-point of the two chief roads that lead
through the desert to the shores of the Red Sea, to
Qoceir, and to Ras-Banas respectively. A part of the
trade between Egypt and Southern Arabia or Somali-
land traversed those routes from the very earliest times.
The sailors unloaded the wares they brought from
Pouanit or the Divine Lands in one of the havens
situated near Qoceir itself. The goods consisted for the
most part of resins and gums or odorous barks, which
the ancients mingled together for their sacrifices, incense,
myrrh, cinnamon, as well as gold, ivory, ebony, rare
woods, rare animals like the monkey or the giraffe. The
produce was entrusted to caravans, which reached
Coptos in four or five days, and thence made use of
the Nile to penetrate the whole of the valley from
Syene to Memphis. Coptos was a depot where native
and exotic merchandise was accumulated and bartered;
its prosperity increased or diminished with the fluctua-
tions of the Red Sea trade, and attained its zenith
when the power of Egypt was entirely in the hands of
one energetic family, and could guarantee the safety of
the desert routes against the Bedouins, or exercise a
strict surveillance over the coast of the Erythrasa. The
ruins, tried as they have been by invasions, still preserve
enough documents to teach us that the Vlth Dynasty,
about 3600 B.C., the Xlth and Xllth, about 3200 B.C.,
the XVIIIth and XlXth, from 1700 B.C. to 1300 B.C.,
the Ptolemies and the Antonines effectively protected
and enriched the town. Its best time was from the third
century B.C. to the third century a.d., first under the
Macedonians and then under the Romans, when a con-
siderable portion of the maritime trade with India and
1 Flinders Petrie : Koptos, London, 1896.
^f4-Ha41fiQ|
-: <s
^'
m
ri
s-
t,i^
rxf .?#S
LCU
J :6 V
^i^!i^'i!~ro:n:i~i
COPTOS 99
China passed through it before proceeding to Alex-
andria. The turbulent character of its inhabitants and
their revolts repeatedly drew on it the anger of its
masters. Diocletian destroyed it, Kous, then Keneh,
took its place. The town declined, was deserted,
decayed, and became a heap of rubbish exploited by
fellaheen and archasologists.
A little of everything can be gleaned on so ancient a
site, occupied by so many different generations. Flin-
ders Petrie preferred to devote his attention to the great
temple, and has extracted from it fragments of every
epoch. The larger number belong to the Xlth and
Xllth Dynasties, and come from halls rebuilt by one of
the Antoufs, Antouf V, and by Amenemhait I. They
are of a marvellous delicacy, and will rank among the
most remarkable works of Egyptian sculpture during the
first Theban Empire. The relief is very low, scarcely
perceivable above the general level of the wall, and yet
the few delicate touches which heighten the contour of the
figures are wonderfully precise and accurate, and most
skilfully applied in the right places. Indeed, the model-
ling of the head and body stand out as perfectly as if
sculptured in high relief. The sculptures of the tomb
give an idea of the elegance and the skilful technique of
I he art of the Xllth Dynasty, but the fragments of the
|freat official buildings we had so far discovered were too
(luch mutilated to enable us to discern the point of per-
^ction attained in the studios where work was done for
he kings. The pieces now discovered by Flinders
Petrie, of which he publishes photographs, permit us
to judge of that perfection with certainty, and partly to
fill in one of the most serious lacunae in our manuals of
Egyptian archaeology. The pictures of Deir El-Bahari,
Louxor, and Abydos are the only ones that can be com-
pared with those of Coptos ; perhaps, indeed, the former
lack something of the inspiration of the latter. The
lOO NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
blocks in the name of Thoutmosis III and later
sovereigns that Flinders Petrie describes after the others
are far from possessing an equal interest for the history
of art. They authorize us to declare that Coptos always
possessed notable schools, and that the sculptor's art
never descended as low there as in many Egyptian
towns ; they are particularly valuable for their historical
information despite the injury they have received at the
hands of time.
The most curious is an actual decree of excommunica-
tion promulgated in the year III of King Antouf V
by the chapter of the god Minou, the patron of the
town. The document does not tell us what Teti, son
of Minhotpou, had done to deserve his condemnation,
and it is probable that we shall never know for certain.
Some of the expressions lead me to judge that probably
politics had much to do in the matter, and that Teti
was implicated in some plot against the sovereign.
Here is the composition, which does not lack origin-
ality : "The year III, the 25th Phamenoth, under his
Majesty Antouf, who, like unto the Sun, gives life
everlastingly. Decree of the king to Minouhait,
governor of Coptos, to Kaininou, the royal prince who
is in command at Coptos, to the vassal Monkhouminou,
to the hierogrammatist Nofirhotpou, to all the soldiers
of Coptos, and to the whole community of the temple.
To all of you this decree is sent that you may know
the following : My Majesty has sent the hierogram-
matist, vassal of Amon, Siamonou, and the head of
the ushers, Ousiramonou, to make an inquiry at the
temple of Minou, regarding the deputation that the com-
munity of the temple of my father, Minou, sent to my
Majesty to say : * A wicked plot has been made in this
temple, and an enemy introduced into it (may his name
pass away I), Teti, son of Minhotpou I' Let him be cast
out of the temple of my father Minou; let him be dis-
missed from his employment in the temple, he and his,
COPTOS loi
from son to son, from posterity to posterity, and let them
be wanderers on the face of the earth ; let his rations of
bread be cut off, let his portion of the sacred viands be
erased from the registers so that his name be not com-
memorated, as is done to all who like him have blas-
phemed or shown hostility to his god ; let all that relates
to him on the writings of the temple and in the registers
of the royal treasury be effaced; if any actual king, or
any one performing the functions of a king, pardon him,
let that king no longer wear the white crown, let him no
longer keep the red crown of Egypt, let him sit no
longer on the throne of Horus, who reigns over the living,
let the two goddesses of the south and the north no more
bestow on him their love; no matter what general or
what governor presents himself before the king, and asks
)ardon for this wicked man, let his goods and his lands
>e forfeit to the Treasury of my father, Minou of Coptos ;
ind let none of his clients or dependents, none of the
clients or dependents of his father or mother be provided
for from his office, but let that office be given to the
rassal, the administrator of the palace, Minouhait, and
^t be given him also the bread of the other, and his
irtion of the sacred viands, and let them be written in
lis name in the registers of the temple of Minou of
/Optos, from son to son, from posterity to posterity!'*
document later by 2000 years condemned those who
rare excommunicated to be burnt alive at Napata in
Ethiopia. But Teti's life was spared. Was the mercy
itentional or did he escape his persecutors?
Kings little known until now appear here and there, a
.ahotpou who seems to have reigned about the eighteenth
intury B.C. without much distinction, and we must come
lown almost to the town's last days to find inscriptions
[ual in interest to the decree of excommunication. The
rreeks and then the Romans kept a fairly strong gar-
ison there, which guarded the Nile and the desert, and
Iso a custom-house, where everything that came from
102 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the Red Sea or went to it paid dues for entrance and
departure. Soldiers and excisemen have left traces in
the inscriptions dug out by Flinders Petrie. Antistius
Asiaticus, Prefect of the coast at Berenicia on the Red
Sea, under Domitian, drew up a tariff about 90 a.d. We
learn what the grantees of the transport service between
Coptos and Berenicia had to disburse : to bring a helms-
man into Egypt, 8 drachmas, a bowman, 10 drachmas,
a sailor, 5 drachmas, a slave for prostitution, 108 drach-
mas, an ass, 2 obols, and so on; to convey a mummy
from Coptos to the sea and vice versdy i drachma and 4
obols. Egyptians who died away from their native
village exacted that their bodies should be buried in
their native places ; the corpse was consigned to a boat-
man or the head of a caravan, who delivered it according
to freight at the desired place, and the number of these
funerary packages was sufficiently large for toll to be
levied on them. Auxiliary troops levied in Asia have
left dedications to their divinities ; thus Marcus Aurelius
Beliakob, of the Palmyrian archers to the most high
god, Jerablous of Hierapolis. A sailor or a merchant
who had escaped the dangers of the Red Sea dedicated a
votive offering to the most high Isis for the successful
voyage of the good ship Sarapis, Some of these monu-
ments, unimportant in themselves, derive interest from
the name of the sovereign under whom they were erected ;
one of them constitutes one of the rare memorials we
possess of Caius Fulvius Quietus, who was Emperor in
the East with his father Macrian in 259, during the years
which followed the defeat of Valerianus and his capture
by the Persians. They are small events and insignifi-
cant facts considered by themselves. But, pieced to-
gether, they explain and complete each other, and end
by forming, as in a mosaic, a picture of the life of a pro-
vincial city in Egypt under the Pharaohs or under
foreign rulers.
Photo} The Barberini Obelisk raised by Hadrian for Antinous. IR.Moscioni.
page 102.
XII
THE TOMB OF ANTINOUS AT ROME
As it is unwise to be discouraging, I will not declare
e Barberini obelisk to be the ugliest of Egyptian
kjelisks ; I will content myself with calling it the poorest
f the obelisks that have been erected at different times
1 the public places of Rome. It is badly cut, badly pro-
ortioned, heavy, and squat; each of the four sides is
covered with two columns of hieroglyphics piled one on
top of the other in such confusion that the order of the
words can scarcely be distinguished. The sculptors
who executed this masterpiece took a great amount of
trouble, but they lacked the intelligence and skill of their
colleagues who were then engaged in decorating the
sanctuaries of Upper Egypt, Thebes and Philae. It
has none of the qualities that give such a dignified
spect to the obelisks of the great period, such as purity
f line, inflexible clearness of the edges, perfect polish
f the material, broad and harmonious spacing of the in-
riptions, beauty of the characters ; it is indeed only an
wkward and pretentious counterfeit. But its inscriptions
ave an interest for the archaeologist that they do not
ssess for the artist. We know from Champollion that
ey are devoted to the praise of Antinous, and that they
lebrate Hadrian's strange favourite as if he was a
od. Erman has just translated them in an almost defini-
ve manner, and there is all the more merit in the task
ince a more barbarous text has never presented itself to
he attention of an Egyptologist. The language spoken
103
104 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
on the banks of the Nile in the time of Hadrian was to
that of the Theban Pharaohs as Italian or French is to
Latin. Scholars, priests and nobles nearly understood
it by routine, just as the monks of the eleventh or
twelfth century understood the language of Cicero ; when
they wished to write it, they were compelled to use the
fragments borrowed from their reading of Centos, in
which lexicon and grammar were equally ill-treated.
Erman was often vastly puzzled by the curious sen-
tences, complicated by an entirely unprejudiced spell-
ing. The surprising thing is not that there are a few
blank spaces in his translation, ^ but that there are not
more. He displays inexhaustible ingenuity in finding
a meaning, and the version suggested for more than
one of the sentences may appear doubtful to some of
his readers; to me they seem exactly to fit the original,
and should be accepted in almost every case as corre-
sponding to the thought of the Egyptian scribe to whom
we owe this piece of eloquence. The basis of the ideas
and formulas counts for much in the feeling of improb-
ability aroused in us. The Egyptian protocol applied
to Egyptians of pure race, or to the Egyptianized Ptole-
mies, is exceedingly curious. The fantastic and almost
comic effects produced when it is adapted to the hand-
some Antinous and his Roman surroundings are
scarcely imaginable.
" How splendid," exclaims the author in one of the
inscriptions, ** the fortune that has come to the Osirian
Antinous I His heart feels the greatest joy because he
knows his new shape, and since he has begun to live
again he sees his father Horus !" Then he takes advan-
tage of his entrance into the Egyptian heaven to implore
Ra's protection for Hadrian and his wife, the Sabine
^ A. Erman : Der Obelisk des Antinous; Huelsen : Der Grab des
Antinous^ taken from the Memoirs of the German Archaeological
Institute, Vol. xi, pp. 1 13-130. 1896.
TOMB OF ANTINOUS AT ROME 105
Empress. That duty accomplished, he takes complete
possession of all his divine privileges, and it is only just,
for he had been mummified with all conventional rites.
He is now **a brave man, without weakness; ... he
breathes the air of life, his glory is in the heart of all
men, and Thot, the Lord of Hermopolis, the master of
the Holy Books, will rejuvenate his soul as the moon
and the sun are rejuvenated in their seasons, day and
night, at every hour, at every minute I Love of him is
in the hearts of all his servants, fear of him is in all
their limbs, all men praise and worship him. The
place of his feet is in the Hall of Truth," where Osiris
judges the dead ; the souls acclaim him, he goes where
le likes, all the gates of Hades open before him. And
^hile the immortals eagerly welcome him in heaven,
lortals overwhelm him with honour on earth. ** Jousts
For the brave men who are in this land are instituted
In the town, the name of which is derived from his,
For the boatmen, and for the wrestlers of the whole
jarth, even for all the people who know the dwelling
>f Thot; crowns are placed on their heads by way
>f prizes, as well as rewards of all sorts of good things.
>fferings are made on his altars, the liturgies of the
fods are placed before him every day . . . people come
to him from every town, because he listens to the
>rayers of those who invoke him. He heals the sick,"
>y bestowing on them those prophetic dreams, in
^hich the gods reveal to their petitioners the remedies
>est suited to cure them. As such power could not
►elong to a child of the human race, the panegyrist
loes not doubt that his hero is of divine extraction,
lis mother received him of a god descended incognito
►n to the earth. It was a common custom with the
Egyptian gods when they wished to enthrone a family
)f new Pharaohs.^ They used it in the case of Anti-
1 Cf. Chapter VIII.
io6 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
nous, not to found a dynasty, a thing Rome would not
have tolerated, but to bestow on the world another god,
a thing to which Rome was not usually averse.
That is what the inscriptions on three sides of the
obelisk have to tell us. Many readers will consider it
very little; they would prefer a narrative, even though
it were official, of the death of Antinous, and to know
which of the current versions of the matter pleased the
Emperor. Did Antinous sacrifice himself to save
Hadrian from the dangers of which he was foretold, or
was he accidentally drowned? The Egyptian author is
silent on the subject, and probably it did not greatly
interest him ; he had been commissioned to write a
panegyric according to the strictest rules of Egyptian
rhetoric, and he honestly accomplished the task, with as
many fine phrases and as few facts or ideas as possible.
But the legend on the fourth side reveals to us a circum-
stance that was unknown to ancient historians, and to
which modern historians have not paid sufficient atten-
tion. Antinous perished near Hermopolis, and his
deification, the games celebrated in his honour, the insti-
tution of his worship, all the events so far known, took
place near Hermopolis, in the town of Antinoe. This
time, however, the narrative takes us to Rome. *' The
Antinous who is here, and who reposes in this locality,
who is in the field situated near the powerful lady, Rome,
is recognized as a god in the divine localities of Egypt.
A temple has been built for him, he is worshipped there
as a god by the prophets and by the priests of the South
and of the North, as well as by the people of Egypt; a
town is named after him, and the soldiers, as well as
all the Greeks who are in the Egyptian localities, come
to this town, all, as many as they are, and fields and
lands are given them to make their lives most happy.
There is in that place a temple of the god called Osiris-
Antinous, built of fine white limestone, surrounded by
I
TOMB OF ANTINOUS AT ROME 107
sphinxes, statues, many columns as the kings, our
ancestors, built them, and as the Greeks did after them ;
all the gods and all the goddesses give breath to
Antinous that he may acquire a new youth."
Erman understands, as did Birch before him,^ that
Antinous was buried at Rome, in the field near the town,
and I do not see that any other translation could be
made. It must be conceded that Antinous, mummified
at Hermopolis directly after his death, was not buried in
his city of Antinoe. Hadrian took him with him, or
sent him direct to Rome, and built him a tomb outside
the Pomoerium, as the Egyptian inscription expressly
states. Birch thinks that the phrase, the field situated
near the powerful lady, Rome^ means the Campus
Martius; according to Parker, the obelisk placed in
front of the tomb would have been removed to the
amphitheatre of Varius Marcellus, perhaps by Helio-
fabalus, about 220. On the other hand, Huelsen, who
Ids to Erman's memoir very interesting notes on the
iscovery of the obelisk in the sixteenth century, and on
fate from the time it fell into the hands of the Bar-
jrini until it was set up in the Pincio Piazza by Pope
4us VII in 1822, thinks that the spot where it was dis-
>vered in the Vigna Saccocciy marks within a little the
ite on which Hadrian originally erected it. It is to be
loped that well-directed excavations may bring to light
le monument that it accompanied, alone, or joined to
similar one, according to the Egyptian custom. If,
ideed, the tomb referred to in the inscription was not
cenotaph consecrated to the worship of his favourite
[y the Emperor, there might be a chance of finding in
the coffin or the sarcophagus. The climate of Rome,
inlike that of Egypt, does not lend itself to the preserva-
ion of bodies, but chance sometimes does strange
lings, and the methods of mummification, degenerate
^ Cf. Parker : Obelisks of Rome.
io8 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
as they were in Roman times, would still offer a strong
resistance to decomposition. The corpses were impreg-
nated with a boiling bitumen, which transformed them
into a blackish mass, hideous to see, foetid to smell, easy
to break or to burn, but less accessible to damp than the
better prepared mummies of the great Pharaonic ages.
If the funerary chamber escaped the depredations of
thieves and barbarians, there is some chance left of
extracting from it still intact the block of charcoal, of
vaguely human form, that was once the handsome
Antinous.
XIII
A PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN AN EGYPTIAN
AND HIS SOUL
An Egyptian was talking with one of his souls. They
had several in those times; the bat, a bird which after
the death flew to the heavenly sphere, but returned at
will; the double, a coloured, mobile, live image which
dwelt in the tomb as in its lawful domicile, and escaped
from it during the day, if it liked, in order to see
igain the regions that testified to its existence; the
irk shade, the khaibit; the luminous one, the khou,
rhich hid itself in the darkest corners of the vault, and
mly left them at rare intervals in order to punish the
iving for their neglect of it. The beginning of the
manuscript in which this conversation is preserved is
)st, and so we do not know how it came about. At
le point where we take it up, the interview had already
LSted some time, and the talk is going its way. Death
undoubtedly the subject, but the thesis defended by
5ach of the interlocutors is not very clear. I thought
lat the man, terrified by the uncertainties of the future
ife, was explaining his anguish to the soul; the soul
'attempted to reassure him, and drew an almost attractive
picture of the passage between the present and the future
life. Erman, who has just translated the dialogue,^
thinks, on the contrary, that the man was summoning
* A. Erman : Gesprach eines Lebensmiiden mit seiner Seele, aus dent
Papyrus 3024 der Koeniglichen Museen, extracted from the Memoirs
of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 1896.
109
no NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
death, and that the soul was trying to dissuade him
from suicide. The text lends itself to both interpreta-
tions, and only the discovery of the first part would
authorize us to declare which is true. One point, how-
ever, is certain in either view, the author's gloomy
conception of humanity, a conception he largely
develops in the last couplets of his work. For one who
has seen the perversity of the age, and the lamentable
passage of the world. Hades has no terrors, and in his
eyes death is only a return from exile, or the cure of a
painful malady.
The soul having evidently concluded a very eloquent
tirade, of which only two or three words remain, the
man " opens his mouth and replies to the soul * Concern-
ing what he had said.' " He complains that it had not
spoken wisely enough to him in the trials he had gone
through, but "had fled away during the days of mis-
fortune.— And then, my soul attacks me because I did
not listen when it led me to death, because I did not
go towards it when it threw me into the flames to con-
sume me I" And yet it ought "to have been close to
me in the days of misfortune, to have kept by my side
as one who weeps for me, as one who leaves the crowd
and walks near me. O my soul, cease to reproach me
that I mourn for life, cease to thrust me towards death
because I do not go to it with entire pleasure, cease,
also, to draw a pleasant picture of Hades I Is it not
a misfortune that life can only be lived once? Is
not Hades filled with gods who ask of the manes a
strict account of their sins?" Here the soul, impatient
of such weakness, interrupts brusquely : " Art thou not
a poor devil ? And yet thou cursest the other world,
and groanest over thy fate as if thou wert a rich
man I" But the man is not disconcerted by this
attack: "It's no use your getting angry," he replies,
" I shall not go," and he insists more emphatically than
A PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE in
before on the terror death inspires in him, and the
vicissitudes of burial. The soul draws a fresh argu-
ment from the words it has just heard : ** If thou inces-
santly thinkest on the tomb, it is a trouble of the heart,
a cause for weeping which crushes the individual and
tears him from his home; for once cast on the hill,"
where the tombs are, '' thou wilt come out no more to see
the Sun "; all the dead are vowed fatally to oblivion,
md ** those for whom granite statues have been carved,
|or whom the double dwelling has been cut in form of
pyramid, a work of excellence and perfection, the
livine statues modelled for them, and the tables of
rotive offerings attached to them, all these are in the
jnd left as lonely as if they had been humble persons
'ho had died of hunger by the roadside, or a small
[armer brought to ruin by inundation or drought, poor
(evils who had none to talk to but the fish by the water's
»de I" There, indeed, was the height of distress for the
)gyptian, who was naturally talkative, and an old
lepherd's song said of the brickmaker who works with
lis feet in the mud after the water subsides : '* The
►rickmaker is in the water among the fishes — he talks
the cat-fish, he greets the oxyrhynchos, Hades, your
►rickmaker is a brickmaker of Hades !" he dies because
le has no one to talk to. But the soul is careful not
to leave its man with so fatal a picture. It counsels
lim to put away sad thoughts and to give himself up to
►resent joy. '* Hearken to me, for it is good for men
to hearken — follow the happy day, put aside lamenta-
ition." And it supports the advice by examples drawn
'rom daily life. " When the vassal has laboured at his
field, and loaded his harvest on a boat, he entrusts
himself to the water, and his time of rejoicing draws
nigh," the pleasure of storing it in the granary. But
suddenly he sees a storm gathering; he keeps watch
in his boat from sunset to sunrise, while his wife and
k
112 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
children, *'who came to meet him, perish in the canal,
terrified in the darkness, among the crocodiles." Then
he crouches down, and raises his voice, saying: *' I
do not weep for this dear soul who will not come out
from Hades to return to the earth; I weep for the
children cut oflF in the spring-time of their life, who,
because they saw the face of the crocodile, are no longer
living." Those who should complain are not those who
have accomplished their term of life, but those from
whom life has been prematurely snatched.
That speech convinces the man. He contradicts him-
self, and admits that he has no great happiness to expect
in this world; the tomb is a sure shelter, where he will
enjoy absolute repose. What follows is evidently the
principal part of the work, that over which the poet
took the most care, and that which his readers will
most admire. The piece is divided into three couplets,
constructed on the same model ; strophes of three lines,
the first of which is repeated each time; the two others
offer a new image, by means of which the theme
put forward in each couplet is developed. The man
declares the misery and contempt into which he fell
after the events recorded doubtless at the beginning of
the history, but of which so far we are ignorant. '' See,
my name is more abused than the odour of ravens on
summer days when the sun blazes ! — See, my name is
more abused than the peach when the sun blazes. — See,
my name is more abused than the odour of birds, more
than the high meadows in which flocks of geese feed."
And in similar fashion he passes in review a series of
animals or of occupations which spread a foetid odour,
before risking similes drawn from a higher order of
ideas. "See, my name is more abused than the wife
who has been slandered to her husband I — See, my
name is more abused than the brave child about whom
lies are told to his parents I — See, my name is more
A PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE 113
abused than a town which is continually plotting rebel-
lion, but which is never found out!" He struggles in
vain against this evil reputation. How is he to justify
himself, since all the men of the age are egoists and
j cowards? *' To whom shall I speak to-day? The
' brothers are bad, and the friends of to-day love no one.
— To whom shall I speak to-day? Hearts are cruel,
j and each man takes his neighbour's goods. — To whom
shall I speak to-day? The weak perish and victory is
to the strong. — To whom shall I speak to-day? No
one remembers yesterday, and no one dares act at the
crucial moment. — To whom shall I speak to-day?
There are no more just men, and the earth is a heap
of evil-doers I" The litany is too long to be quoted
II full; in short: "the wicked strike the world unceas-
igly I" Death alone offers a refuge to him who desires
escape the evils of this world, and becomes indeed
most pleasant by contrast. ** Death seems to me to-
ly like the remedy for a disease, like going out into the
)en air after a fever ! — Death seems to me to-day like
an odour of incense, like repose under a sail on a windy
day ! — Death seems to me to-day like the odour of the
lotus, like repose on the shores of a land of plenty I —
Death seems to me to-day like the path of a torrent, like
the return home of a soldier-sailor ! — Death seems to me
to-day like the clear sky after a storm, like a man who
goes hunting in an unknown land ! — Death seems to
me to-day like the desire of a man to see his home
after many years spent in captivity I — He who is
'among the dead,' is a living god who spurns the sin
of him who commits it ! — Whoever is there, he sits
in the Boat of the Sun, and presides at the distribu-
tion of the offerings to the temples. Whoever is there
is as a learned man to whom nothing he implores of
R^ is refused." The soul, delighted with his success,
adds a few well-chosen words of congratulation to this
8
L
114 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
profession of faith, and promises not to desert the man
in his hour of trial : " When you arrive in Hades and
your body still belongs to the earth, I will keep close
to you while you rest, and we will dwell together."
Such is this strange manuscript, one of the most
extraordinary among those left us by ancient Egypt.
The language is concise and vigorous, the text muti-
lated, sometimes incorrect, and I am not sure that in all
places we have extracted the correct shades of meaning.
I can speak of the difficulties it presents with personal
knowledge, for I have made three attempts to explain its
meaning in twenty years at the Ecole des Haute s-Etudes,
and I studied it most carefully without succeeding in
satisfying myself. Erman has performed a veritable
feat in translating it, and if everything in his interpreta-
tion is not certain, the fault should not be attributed
to him but to the perversity of the chance that has trans-
mitted the manuscript in the most unfavourable circum-
stances for its right understanding. For that reason I
can scarcely be expected to hazard an opinion as to its
literary value. It is generally conceded that the author,
conscious of the banality of his subject, took great pains
to give it variety and to render the expression of it
artistic; but, unfortunately, it is the literary art that we
can least appreciate. We may sometimes divine the
sounds of the rhymes, the assonances, the plays upon
words depending on the multiple meanings of the
roots, the harmony or contrasts of the rhythms, but
our comprehension of such points does not go very far.
The themes and the topics come out almost quite clearly,
but they belong to a religion, to customs, to a political
constitution, to methods of administration that we im-
perfectly know, and to be understood require a com-
mentary so learned that it almost always kills the little
poetry that has managed to survive. The translation
of the dialogue bears the same relation to the original
A PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE
115
that the disjointed skeleton of a fossil animal bears to
the living prototypes of its day. It provides the curious
with a few rusty fragments of the framework of the com-
position ; but the undulation of the contours, the con-
trasts and harmonies of the colours, the spirit which
animated it, and the movement which vivified it are all
wanting.
XIV
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF MAGIC OF THE FIRST CENTURY A.D.
From the earliest times magic was the great Egyptian
science. Long before the time of the Pyramids, sor-
cerers fabricated charms by which they controlled the
gods, and forced them to do whatever was demanded
of them ; they could call up the dead, enchant the living,
model and put life into wax dolls made in the form of
men or animals, or painlessly cut off a man's head and
put it back on his shoulders. Conspirators desiring to
get rid of a king bewitched him, and entered into collu-
sion with the women of the harem to procure certain
accessories required for their operations. Speculators in
quest of hidden wealth exorcised the serpents who guarded
the treasure in the Necropolis of Memphis. Magic
entered into all the acts of life, into all its passions, love,
hate, ambition, revenge, into the care of the sick. Its
adepts continually perfected it with new practices in-
vented by themselves, or derived from foreign parts;
they took books of magic and amulets from Chaldaea,
Syria, Ethiopia, Judaea, Greece, so that in the first
century a.d. their laboratory and their library com-
prised, as it were, the quintessence of all the systems
of magic in use from one end of the Roman Empire to
the other.
One of their rituals, compiled about the time of the
Antonines, has been preserved; part of it is in the
museum of Leyden, and part in the British Museum.
It is written in the latest of the running hands of Egypt,
ii6
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF MAGIC 117
the demoticy the small appearance and confusing turns
of which still puzzle most students. Certain fragments
of it have been repeatedly studied, and Groff has just
published a complete analysis, so that those who are
curious on the subject can now form an idea of the
sorcerer's equipment at that time.^ He was only a pro-
vincial relegated to one of the secondary towns of middle
Egypt, Oxyrynchus, and doubtless possessed only this
one tool. But it contained all he needed for his ordinary
customers. Did they wish to interview a divinity?
Half-a-dozen recipes were forthcoming, more or less
efficacious, or more or less dangerous, according to the
urpose of the consultation and the fee offered. Others
compelled a dead person to come out of the tomb, and
reply to questions asked him. To force a man to love
a woman, or a woman to love a man, there was a wide
hoice, and there were equally numerous ways of send-
ng dreams to foes or friends, to compel them to take
he desired step. Those were the usual things, at least
n the district of Oxyrynchus. The practitioner whose
00k of magic we are reading had only one way of stop-
ping or averting a storm ; but he practised medicine,
^^and cured the bite of a dog or a serpent by words,
^■accompanied with curious ceremonies. He had a list
^Bof diseases at the service of those who wished to get rid
^Bof a relation whose property he expected to inherit, or
^Bof a tiresome neighbour; he distilled philtres, prepared
' and consecrated talismans, at need he told fortunes. All
this did not go on without trouble, or without arousing
the anger of the populace against him. The law pursued
him, the priest looked askance at him, the anger of his
victims or of his dupes sometimes overtook him, and
the spirits he dominated did not save him from public
" Etudes sur la sorcellerie ou le role que la Bible a jpu6 chez
les sorciers" (extract from the Memoires de Vlnstitut Egyptien).
1897.
h
ii8 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
condemnation or private vengeance; nevertheless, the
profits of the profession outweighed the disadvantages,
and those who adopted it made a fortune.
The technique of the incantations naturally varied
with circumstances. One of the most frequent, that in
which one or more divinities became visible, required
elaborate preparations, and the assistance of a special
helper, a child, a little boy of ten or twelve years old.
Even to-day the magician who calls up scenes in the
mirror of magic ink cannot look at them himself, for
his impurity blinds him to the manifestation of the
spirits; a child pure in soul and body is alone
capable of understanding the words they say, or of in-
terpreting their acts. The sorcerer procured a lamp
that had never been used; he placed a new wdck in it,
and pure oil, then he retired into an isolated chamber,
completely dark, and consecrated, and lighted the lamp.
As soon as it burned steadily, he placed the child in
front of it, bidding him fix his eyes on the flame, and
declaimed the words that had the power to call forth
the gods. A drug previously dissolved in the oil, a
powder thrown on the wick during the manipulations,
gave out a penetrating perfume. The child soon saw a
figure appear either by the side of the flame, or in the
flame itself. He informed the operator, who began a
new prayer, and requested the help of the being who
was manifesting himself for the client on whose behalf
he was working. It sometimes happened that the god J;
refused to take any part in the matter, or that he was
angered by the importunate person who disturbed his
peace, and then the divinity would ill-treat, or even kill
him. A sorcerer of Louxor, having discovered a col-
league in me, was not averse to discussing his lore with
me, but refused to give me a proof; for nearly a year, ?
each time he had attempted to carry out some manifesta-
tion, the red sultan who presides over the evil genii had
I
m
I
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF MAGIC 119
tried to strangle him. The af rites of Mussulman Egypt
have not, as we see, lost the tradition of the gods of
Pharaonic Egypt.
The pieces in the demotic collection do not greatly
differ from those to be found in the Agrippa of French
rural sorcerers. Side by side with adjurations, they
offer advice; threats are expressed in intelligible lan-
guage, there are lists of odd words without appreciable
meaning for the unlearned, and almost always for the
practitioner who recites them. Among the confusion of
terms we may distinguish names, and sometimes frag-
ments of phrases borrowed from foreign languages, the
Ethiopian, Greek or Hebrew. The gods and genii,
by what law we do not know, became the slaves of those
who called them by their real name, and at first, in
magic as in religion, the name under which the com-
munity worshipped them had been employed. It is
robable that this fashion of summoning them to appear
as not very efficacious, and it was remembered that the
erms Amon, Phtah, Ra were purely human names used
by the community, and which, consequently, they were
not compelled to obey. They had special names to dis-
inguish themselves that they concealed in the bottom of
their hearts, of which they made a mystery not only to
mortals, but to the other divinities. The chief efforts
of the magician, therefore, were directed to surprise
their secret, and to tear from them the word that would
put them at their mercy; the word, whether because
it belonged to no human tongue, or because it came
from a neighbouring people, remained incomprehensible
to his clients, and therein lay its chief merit. It
was not to be expected that one of the beings on high
would leave his heavenly dwelling to undertake some
amorous commission for a young girl when he was simply
addressed as Anubis or Thot; but how could he help
descending to earth and performing what he was asked
120 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
to do when he was proclaimed Khahakhel^ Partomokh,
or Knouriphariza? It is exceedingly curious suddenly
to come across the name Baal, or Adonai, in the midst
of this jargon. The Jews played so great a part in
Egypt from the time of Alexander, that we ought not
to be surprised if their sorcerers lent Egyptian magicians
some of the expressions they used in their opera-
tions. They gave them Jao, Sabaoth, Eloai*, Mikhael,
Joel, all their angels, and all their evil spirits. The
ingenious necromancer even laid budding Christianity
under contribution : Jesus seems to have been invoked
by one of them, and John not far off. It goes without
saying that the divinities of the Greeks figure by the
side of those of the Asiatics or Africans. Some incan-
tations comprise, as it were, a sample of each religion
honoured in the Oriental provinces of the Roman
Empire.
We should scarcely suspect what a large part magic
played in ordinary life if the excavations did not con-
stantly prove it. Tablets of devotion are found nearly
everywhere, at Cyprus, at Carthage, in Gaul, formerly
prepared by magicians for clients who trusted their
efficacy. They are thin sheets of lead, rolled or folded
over, with writing or mysterious figures scratched on
them. Sometimes they were fastened to the wall of a
house or a tomb, sometimes they were slipped into the
tomb itself by the opening through which libations
were poured and prayers uttered. The manes and
demons who dwelt there were excellent tools in the hands
of the sorcerers, especially the souls of suicides, of
criminals, of murdered persons, of all who died a violent
death before their time, and who had to live near their
bodies until the period predestined for their earthly life
was accomplished. The commissions entrusted to them
were manifold. They were told the names of the horses
down to run in the circus, and were ordered to make
I
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF MAGIC 121
them ill, or restive, to drive them mad, or to paralyze
them, in short, to prevent them from winning the race.
Or Domitius would require them to act for him with his
mistress, Candida, and to kindle such hot love in her
that her heart should burn, and never be extinguished.
The incantations somewhat differed in form from those
in the book of the sorcerer of Oxyrynchus; they are
not there translated into Greek or Latin, but they are
constructed on the same model, they let loose the same
evil powers, they abound in similar mystical names and
strange expressions; it is Egyptian or Hebrew magic
acclimatized in the West. The compilation examined
by Groff was only one of the least of the books of magic
in use in the Roman world. They were counted by
the hundred, and the abuses due to them ended by
alarming the Emperors, and the books were ordered
to be destroyed. The edicts, even supported by the exe-
cution of notorious magicians, and of those who had
recourse to their science, had no lasting influence, for,
lad the magistrates carried them out effectually, the
)opulation of several provinces would have been
lecimated.
XV
ARCHAIC EGYPT
Until lately the Egypt of Cheops and of Chephren
marked the limit in the past to which our eyes could
reach. We saw it clearly and distinctly in full posses-
sion of its art and its political and social laws, but
farther back the monuments suddenly ceased, and
nothing more could be distinguished. It seemed that
the mass of the Pyramids interposed between it and
the Egypt that had preceded it. Now it is revealed in
its turn at Abydos as at Negadeh, and its most ancient
kings have arisen from their tombs.
Flinders Petrie discovered tombs of a peculiar aspect
between Negadeh and Ballas; many of them seemed to
belong to a race of Libyan invaders. In the beginning
of 1897 De Morgan, following Petrie's footsteps, opened
a massive mastaba of unbaked bricks, decorated on the
outside with the long prismatic grooves so frequent on
monuments of the old empire.^ The twenty-one
chambers of which it is composed contain with the
remains of the skeleton a funerary equipment of a rich-
ness commensurate with the rank of the person. The
arms and tools are mostly of flint, the table service of
different kinds of stone or of black and red pottery, the
furniture of wood overlaid with ivory, the ornaments of
paste, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, cornelian, crystal,
gold; fragments of food were mingled with rags of
^ Recherches sur les ori^ines de VEgyptey ethnographic prShistorique ei
tombcau royal de N^gadfh, by J. de Morgan, with the collaboration of
Messrs. Wiedemann and J^quier, and of Dr. Fouquet. Paris, 1897.
p C 122.
The so-called Palette of Narmer, a Monument of Archaic Egypt.
ARCHAIC EGYPT 123
calcined stuffs. A certain number of these objects are of
fine workmanship, and their artistic form nearly re-
sembles that of the monuments of later times. An ivory
statuette of a dog or a lion is sufficiently commonplace,
but the feet of an arm-chair or of a bed, also in ivory,
yield in nothing to the best work of the Memphian
sculptors, and figures of fish have an accurate and pleas-
ing physiognomy. Indeed, there is nothing in it that
points to the beginnings of an art. We feel that the
men to whom we owe it had a long tradition behind
them. When the tomb was built Egypt had emerged
from her infancy, and civilization had developed the
chief characteristics that show themselves under the
modern Pharaohs; it was entirely of the Nile, and
possesses no element necessarily to be attributed to out-
side influence. If the people came from Asia, and there
s nothing to prove it, they preserved no trace of their
rigin; the valley of the Nile assimilated them, a con-
ummation always reached with all its invaders.
The clay caps formerly used to close jars of wine, beer
r water, offered to the dead man to quench his thirst,
ere sealed with one of his names. The characters are
asily deciphered, and as soon as a drawing had been
ade of it in Europe the title of enthronization, Horou
hout, Horus warrior, Horus male, announced by the
ing when the crown was placed on his head, could be
ead.^ Inscriptions were not rare on other objects, but
they consisted of a few signs, figures indicating the
quantity of each substance presented to the master, and
especially a group of three ostriches, and the word baton
(the souls) which attributes the ownership of the vases or
coffers on which they are engraved to the souls of the
king. A sacrificial scene engraved on an ivory plaque
ad the chapel of the tomb for its stage; two crouching
^ It seems that this is the name of enthronization of the second king
of the 1st Dynasty, Atoti, son of Menes. 1907.
U
124 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
animals can still be distinguished, perhaps the two oxen
who dragged the sledge, the sledge itself in the shape of
the sacred boat dedicated to Sokaris, the God of Hades,
then the royal prenomen, warlike Horus, and perhaps
under a light kiosk, perhaps under one of the small
obelisks common enough in the old Memphian tombs,
his real name, preceded by one of the most frequent titles
of the protocol, ruler of the South and of the North.
It comprises only one hieroglyph, the draught-hoard
which stands for ManoUy and it escaped the discoverers
of the tomb. It is, however, the Egyptian spelling of
him whom the Greeks transcribed Menes, and if we like
we may recognize the first king of the 1st Dynasty,
the oldest of the mortals who reigned after the gods, in
the person buried at Negadeh. Are we justified in
doing this, and is this Manou any Menes, or the tradi-
tional Menes? The Egyptian scribes, when they drew
up the list of sovereigns who ruled the whole of Egypt,
must have had an embarrassing task. They read on the
oldest monuments, tombs, temples, inscriptions, isolated
bas-reliefs, names of kings whose filiation and chrono-
logical order did not always appear clear. They omitted
several that accident has revealed to us, and they classi-
fied the others according to rules that we have not dis-
covered, so as to make Dynasties of them; their length
and the order of the Pharaohs in each of them followed
no fixed rule, and varied according to the epochs. In
the two first dynasties they placed princes considered to
be natives of Thinis, a certain Menes at their head.
Thinis, which occupied almost exactly the site of the
modern Girgeh, is somewhat distant from Negadeh, and
it is to be doubted if the scribes would have admitted a
king not buried at Thinis, as the founder of a Thinite
dynasty. The wisest course, then, before pronouncing
decisively on the question of the identity of our Manou
or Menes, is to await the discovery of new documents.
ARCHAIC EGYPT 125
For the moment it is sufficient to have drawn attention
to a similarity in the names, to the great antiquity of
Manou, to the possibility of finding in him the prototype
of the fabulous Menes:^ time will decide the rest.
Perhaps there are contemporaries of this prince in the
tombs excavated near Abydos by Am^lineau. Several of
the inscriptions noticed there seem to have the same
archaic style, but most of the monuments have a much
more modern appearance, and belong to a far less
remote epoch .2 A small ivory plaque that has come into
the hands of an English amateur shows us a Pharaoh,
he who is called Horus of striking stature, Horou-douni,
fighting an enemy fallen in front of him. It is also the
subject of the most ancient Egyptian bas-relief so far
known to us; King Snofroui, who ends the Ilird
Dynasty or begins the IVth, sculptured it at Sinai in
order to perpetuate the memory of his victories over the
Bedouins. The style and composition of the ivory pic-
ture so closely resemble those of the rock picture that
Spiegelberg does not hesitate to place the Horou-douni
about the Ilird Dynasty. That is what 1 thought, and
inscriptions discovered last year confirm that opinion in
a surprising fashion. They came from a very large tomb
which belonged to a king named Horus-Sit, in whom
the two divine forms, Horou-Sit Khd-sakhmoui were
manifested. Several of the functionaries attached to this
personage left the impression of their seal on certain of
the objects of which gifts are made to the double; one
of them belongs to a lady, Hapounimait who was the
wife or relative of Kha-sakhmoui. Now, an inscription at
^ I have since learnt that he has just been recognized by Borchardt,
one of the German Egyptologists recently attached to the Ghizeh
Museum, and that encourages me to persevere in the possible identifi-
cation, if not of the person, at least of the name.
2 Amdlineau, in showing the results of his discoveries to the
Academy of Inscriptions, did not distinguish between the monuments :
he presented them anyhow, those of the Coptic age confused with
those of the early Dynasties. ,
h
126 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
Memphis, in which Snofroui appears, mentions, though
I do not wish to insist on it too emphatically, a queen
of the same name. If, as certain indications authorize
us to suppose, the queen of the tomb at Memphis is
identical with that of the tomb at Thinis, it is possible
that our Kha-sakhmoui is one of the immediate prede-
cessors of Snofroui, perhaps his father or his grand-
father.i In any case it establishes a link between the
Pharaohs of the Memphian Empire and those of the
Thinite Empire that our excavators tried to discover
between the Cheops of the great pyramid of Gizeh and
the indefinite Menes of Negadeh.
For more than twenty years the study of the Mem-
phian tombs has led me to teach that the Egypt of the
Pyramids was the end, and even the decadence, of an
earlier Egypt. The language was perishing of old age, the
religion was changing, art was revealing itself the nearer
perfection the farther back it went into the past, political
organization and social life tended to grow slack. The
discoveries of Negadeh and Abydos enable us to put our
finger on the civilization I only guessed at. Ideas and
customs of which later generations only preserved a
vague memory prevail there. The dead, for instance,
were not mummified ; they were mutilated, dismembered,
and the bones afterwards placed in the sepulchral
chamber. Sometimes the corpse was burnt with its
funerary equipment, and the whole tomb was set on fire
in the last act of the funeral ceremonies.^ Human
sacrifice was currently practised, and probably also a
ritual of cannibalism was indulged in. Several prayers
1 After ten years all this still remains in a state of hypothesis, and
there are no certified documents to settle any of the proposed classifi-
cations of these kings.
2 The tomb of Negadeh had been burnt, and M. de Morgan at first
believed that it had been intentionally set on fire, probably in the last
act of the funeral ; since, it has been found that the fire was caused,
perhaps accidentally, by the thieves who plundered the tomb.
ARCHAIC EGYPT 127
engraved in the interior of the pyramids of the Vth and
Vlth Dynasties had pointed to this already, and they
must have been composed in the time of those old kings,
perhaps even before their time, in the centuries before
any Pharaohs existed. In examining the gnawed bones
and the dismembered skeletons, it can now be under-
stood what the ferocious Osiris, whose existence I divined
in those archaic formulas, was like; in the beginning the
pre-eminently good Being of the Egyptian religion had
been animated by the cruel instincts of her people, and
she only gradually became gentler as the people grew
more civilized. And yet in spite of the barbarity of the
manners, and the simplicity of the tools, it must be con-
fessed that we are far from the very beginning. The
writing exists, and its system is already complete. The
hieroglyphics have their classical value, and we can
decipher them without difficulty wherever it is not a case
of hasty scratchings traced on a fragment of a vase by a
hurried workman. As we felt that there is the Egypt of
Menes always powerful, always civilized behind the Egypt
of the Pyramids, so now we catch a glimpse of a still
more primitive Egypt, but past its early youth and well
equipped for existence, behind the Egypt of Menes.
Somewhere its monuments repose beneath the sand;
they will rise up as soon as we have money enough to
call them forth.
XVI
EGYPTIAN BELIEF IN LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS
There are many persons, even at the present time,
who hesitate to start on their travels on a Friday, and if
they do so, they feel uncomfortable and anxious. Others,
even, do not hesitate at all, and prefer not to start.
It means a distinct loss of a day a week, and, as fear of
accident does not stop with some people even there,
considerable disarrangement of things in general is
caused by such an attitude. But however great the
time thus lost by some persons now, it is very small
compared with what the Egyptians lost in the cause of
superstition in the Pharaonic age, even those who in
their country and their day would have been considered
sceptics.
A papyrus in the British Museum contains a calendar
in which a learned contemporary of Ramses II had,
according to the works of certain former seers, marked
the good or evil virtue of the days of the year.^ We
only possess about two-thirds of it, a little less than
eight months, but each day is conscientiously qualified.
The hours between the rising and setting of the sun,
the only ones that are of importance, are divided into
three seasons of four, each of which is ruled by its
particular influence. Most often their quality was the
same, and the whole day was placed in the category
either of propitious or fatal days. Sometimes, however,
* The Papyrus Saltier^ No. IV, published in facsimile in the Select
Papyri^ Vol. i, translated, with notes by Chabas. "Le Calendrier des
jours, fastes et n^fastes," CEuvres diverses^ Vol. v, pp. 126-235.
128
I
BELIEF IN LUCKY DAYS 129
it happened that one of the periods had one value, while
another assumed another value, and there were also
mixed days on which fortune differed every minute.
The scribe has carefully registered these oscillations,
and has placed a warning note for the reader after each
date, goodj goody good or hostile, hostilej hostiley or
goody goody hostiley or any combination to which the
division into three groups lends itself. He indicates
afterwards the things to be done or avoided, the animals
whose encounter or sight should be shunned, and adds
to this information a summary of the motives which
justified his recommendations. It was in almost every
case a legendary episode of the gods, and as our know-
ledge of Egyptian mythology is very far from thorough
we are often at a loss as to the events and personages
alluded to. We merely perceive that a victory, or some
pleasant experience of one of the immortals at that
particular date and hour, had some undefined effect on
mortals and gave them a chance of prosperity. On
the other hand, the consequences of a disaster in heaven
made themselves felt on earth for a long period of time ;
thus men were benefited or injured by the pleasure or
ain of the gods.
The results of these old sacred stories were often
range, and showed themselves in unexpected ways.
he 23rd of the month of Thot is marked as thrice
cky, and yet the restrictions heaped on that day equal
number those of unlucky days. Incense must not
burnt, nor oxen nor goats nor ducks be killed, nor
eese be eaten, nor music be played or listened to, and
e child who was born would not live. How, then, did
is lucky day differ from unlucky days ? It was prob-
ly so well known at Thebes that the author deemed it
nnecessary to inform posterity, and we are left in
norance until a new order of things shall inform us.
he 25th of the same month was reckoned favour-
9
I30 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
able in the first two seasons^ but the last was unfavour-
able^ demons allied with Set had formerly committed
some misdeed in the afternoon, and the terror they
inspired explains why believers were enjoined not to
leave their houses in the evening hours. The 6th of
Paophi was the fete-day of Ra, the Sun, and the gods
held a family rejoicing; it is probable that they drank
deep on the occasion, for the child born on that day
was destined to die of intoxication. It was, it seems,
an enviable fate, but there was a still better one : the
man or woman who first saw the light on the loth of
Khoiak would die with " a piece of bread in their hand,
and their mouths full of beer," the eye delighted by the
sight of a well-plenished table. I have said elsewhere
how unfavourable prognostics might be temporarily
warded off; amulets or magic formulas permitted the
threatened individual to postpone the moment of their
realization. Whoever had the misfortune to be born
on the 23rd of Paophi would be devoured by a crocodile,
but if he protected himself with the suggested incanta-
tions he would succeed in lengthening his life into
extreme old age; his crocodile would have to wait all
that time unless some carelessness delivered him to his
mercy sooner.
Injunctions with regard to fire are not rare in our
calendar. Fire was not tamed as completely as it is
with us; as it could only be produced by means of a
long and difficult operation, it was carefully nourished,
and great trouble was taken not to let it go out. It
was, in fact, a veritable living being, an almost divine
animal, who was worshipped and treated with the respect
due to the genii superior to humanity, but at certain
times it grew angry, and was then to be distrusted. On
the 5th of Athyr, if it went out, it might not be
rekindled, if it burned, it might not be looked at; its
brightness would fascinate those who let their eyes stray
BELIEF IN LUCKY DAYS 131
towards it, and would draw them into it and consume
them. The 7th of Tobi, there was an order to keep
the flame brilliant, in order to ward off the evil spirits
who attack the house. On the nth of the same month
no one might approach the fire-place, for the god Ra
had once burst into flame on that day in order to devour
his enemies, and the effects of his metamorphosis were
felt each anniversary. The person who ventured near
fire was penetrated by a sort of subtle aura, and had
Feeble health for the rest of his life. I should add that
m that point modern Egypt has inherited the super-
stitions of ancient Egypt. There are days in the year
►n which the fellaheen of Thebes and the Said refuse
to kindle a fire, others when they avoid approaching the
lame, even of a candle or lamp, and the most timid
lo not smoke. I often tried to find out the reason of
leir fear, but Egyptian peasants are much like French
)easants. They suspect the foreigner who questions
them about such matters of wishing to ridicule them,
md either they make no reply at all or only a very
irief one. Some of them, all Mussulmans, told me that
►n those days fire kindled by men changed into hell
'fire, and killed with short shrift all living beings or
inanimate things that felt its heat. It is exactly the
same reason as that given in the time of the Pharaohs,
but no one could or would tell me why the flame under-
went this troublesome change on a particular day.
It was thought that many beasts possessed mysterious
means of self-defence, from which not only the hunter
but any one who chanced to encounter them could
scarcely escape. The lion, like the serpent, could
fascinate with its look; a glance of the eye of certain
species of antelopes immobilized and petrified, so to
speak; the scorpion enclosed its victim in a circle that
he could not get out of, and other creatures were so un-
wholesome that if a man merely looked at them he
132 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
immediately withered away. The influence proper to
each day increased or diminished the influence proper
to each beast. There were certain moments in each
season when anything might be looked at without any
resultant harm; the 28th of Thot, the 3rd, 8th, 13th,
i6th, 28th of Paophi; the 7th, nth, 25th, 30th of
Athyr; the 2nd, 7th, 8th, 22nd, 30th of Khoiak, and so
on, from decade to decade, every one could look on what
he would at will, and the lion would not fascinate him,
the scorpion would not enfold him, the antelope would
not petrify him, no serpent would exercise on him
his destructive power. By the side of animals who
were harmful by nature there were others who only
owed their perversity to the malignity of the day, for
instance, the rat and the ox. If rats or mice had been
dangerous in themselves Egypt would soon have been
depopulated, for their number is legion, or the fellah
would have had to live with his eyes closed in order
never to see them in the house or fields. But there were
moments when the rat, poor wretch, became terrible
without suspecting it, by virtue of the calendar. On
the 1 2th of Tobi, believers were advised not to look
at a rat, or if his eyes accidentally rested on one, to
keep at a respectful distance; on a certain 12th of Tobi
the rat had once served Sokhit in one of her expedi-
tions, and something of the virulence of the goddess had
remained with it. The bull, too, became dangerous
for mythological reasons at a certain fixed date. His
body was one of those into which the gods preferred
to enter when they descended on earth to visit mortals.
Any one meeting a bull when he was possessed by a
god was threatened with sudden death. People were
careful not to kill an ox on the 20th of Thot, for the
20th of Thot was one of the days on which it pleased
the gods to incarnate themselves in bulls, and so in
killing the beast a god might be injured. An ox might
BELIEF IN LUCKY DAYS 133
lot be led by a leash on the 20th of Pharmouti, for
fear that one of the evil spirits let loose on that day,
inocking against the animal, might be introduced into
:, and inspire it with the temptation to gore its leader,
'he 25th of Paophi, which, like the 20th of Thot, was
great day with the gods for excursions on earth, people
ivoided meeting a herd, for if one of the oxen was
Incarnated great harm ensued; the passer-by would
certainly fall dead.
But the worst was that on certain days men them-
;lves acquired terrible properties. People were warned
lot to contemplate the work of the fields on the nth
md 1 2th of Pharmouti. They should not watch over
le tillage, nor the harvest, nor the ploughing of the
)il, for once, at that time, Montou forced the enemies
>f Ra to fulfil these servile tasks for him ; the human
^ye looking at the labourers or gardeners let loose
lisfortune against them. Even to-day the fellaheen
lo not like to be looked at or to have their doings
observed with too close an attention; they immediately
suspect a jettatore^ and they make a gesture or murmur
formula which protects them. The superstition of
le evil eye was rife in ancient Egypt, and every sort
^f precaution was invented for guarding against those of
iither sex afflicted with the vice. The most common
ind most efficacious of the talismans with which people
irmed themselves against it was the charm of the Eye
^f Horus, the ouzatt, which an enterprising jeweller tried
restore to fashion a few years ago. The Eye is there
^presented with its thick eyebrow and with the marks
"bf kohol, with which the Egyptians adorned the eyelids,
for hygienic reasons as well as from coquetry. Some-
times there could be distinguished in the pupil the tiny
human image that all ancient peoples thought to dis-
cern in the eye of a living being, recognizing therein
a manifestation of the soul. Fastened to the wrist,
134 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
worn round the neck, hung on the necklace, or sewed on
a garment, the ouzait was not less efficacious than the
tiger-claws or little horns worn by the Neapolitans to-
day. It may be seen in mystic paintings placed on
slender legs, and strengthened by slim hands which
stretch the bow ; it pierces the evil spirits set free by the
jettatorey and its strength, derived from that of the Sun,
triumphs over their attacks.
It goes without saying that no one would start on a
journey, or even leave the house for a walk, without
reflecting twice. The almanack must be consulted if it
was desired to set foot out of doors, and the restrictions
imposed by it made things fairly awkward for those who
resigned themselves to observing them. The reproach
of imprudence was deserved if any one embarked on
the Nile on Paophi 22nd, for there w^as risk of being
devoured by a crocodile. On Athyr 4th, life was safe,
but the home would be ruined by a simple expedition in
a boat. On Athyr 19th there were whirlpools in the
river, and it could not be ascended or descended without
the risk of being engulfed; in fact, it was better to
stay at home. To travel by boat on Mechir 19th or
24th was not to be thought of. Most often, indeed,
people barricaded themselves in their houses, and did
not stir out, "so fearful were they of accidents. If
they took a breath of fresh air about five o*clock in
the afternoon of Paophi 15th, they ran a great risk.
The serpent Ouat, one of the mythological dragons with
which Egypt was infested, went about unrestrained all
the evening with his train of malignant spirits; who-
ever chanced to see him was at once struck blind. On
the 27th of Pharmouti, the goddess Sokhit made a
terrible disturbance among men ; it was advisable not
to venture out of doors on any pretext from the rising
of the sun to its setting, in order not to be haunted by
her. If any one walked in the open air on Pakhons 5th,
BELIEF IN LUCKY DAYS 135
he was sure to catch a fever. In most cases the scribe
contents himself with saying: "Do not leave the
house," without specifying the nature of the evil by
which the breaking of the law would be punished, but
he nearly always mentions the reasons which made dis-
obedience dangerous, and they are so serious that the
reader comprehends without much elaboration : it is
death with short shrift. The number of days tabooed
varied according to the months, six in Paophi, seven
in Khoiak and Phamenot, five in Pharmouti, and so
on; it may be reckoned that popular superstition
rendered useless about one-fifth of the year.
The Egyptians were not the only people affected by
these kinds of superstitions; the Chaldasans, the
Assyrians, the Elamites, all the Semitic races of the old
world suffered equally under them, and classical nations,
the Greeks and Romans, yielded in nothing to the
Orientals. Hesiod, in his Works and Days, sketches a
plan of months in which he notes their good and evil
influences, with the tasks to be fulfilled or avoided.
Mythology plays its part, and we learn, for instance,
that the 5th is unlucky because of the Furies; they
traverse the world on that date in order to chastise
perjury. The 7th owes its sacred character to the birth
of Apollo; it is quite safe to thresh the corn about mid-
day, and it is good to cut wood for making beds or light
boats. The antique world was wholly plunged in super-
stition. Man felt himself surrounded by mysterious
tribes, gods, genii, demons, wandering souls, elemental
creatures of unfinished shape and almost unconscious,
whose course crossed his, and whose life was mingled
with his life from the day of his birth until that of his
death. The perpetual danger with which they threat-
ened him was all the more terrible since he did not
perceive them as he saw men. He walked blindly in
the midst of them, until unconsciously knocking up
136 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
against them, and hurting them, he felt the effects of
their anger. He had then to seek measures either for
eliminating them from his path, or for warding off their
assaults, or for verifying their presence, and for that pur-
pose applied to the science of prognostics, to divination,
religion, magic. He covered himself with amulets, he
learned formulas, he inquired about the days and hours
when the power of the spirits would be strongest, and
if all his precautions were unavailing, at the critical
moment he shut himself up at home to be out of reach
of their attack. The calendar I have described, and
others like it, instructed him on the last point, and
they were as necessary for his safe guidance among
the invisible spirits as astronomical or religious calen-
dars are for the proper order of festivals and the times
of work in town or country.
All this seems contemptible to us now, but historians
are very wrong systematically to neglect it. The two
serpents of which an Ethiopian king dreamed one night,
were certainly nothing but an illusion of sleep without
real consistence or meaning. Yet directly the priests
of Napata declared that they were the precursory sign
of a conquest of Egypt, Egypt's fate was sealed. The
Ethiopian king assembled his army, set out for the
wars, and, as he thought that the two serpents announced
victory, he fought so well that he won the day. We
could quote more than one example from what we
have deciphered on the monuments of wars and con-
quests, the first cause of which is as futile as the dream
of the Ethiopian. The auguries, the presages, the con-
junctions of the stars, the influences of lucky or unlucky
days have decided the fate of nations, and directed the
progress of humanity during the course of the oldest
history. And if we wish to understand that history,
and to make our contemporaries understand it, we must
reckon with these superstitions.
ml
XVII
THE EGYPTIAN * BOOK OF THE DEAD *
The double of the Egyptians must sometimes have
been greatly embarrassed when, after having undergone
the last purifications, and received the last votive offer-
ings, he found himself alone in his vault, by the side
>f his corpse. His relatives and friends on the earth
ibove, full of compassion for his weakness, and of
►licitude for his well-being in the future life, had
leaped up around him all sorts of gifts, useful and
iseless. He had clothes, and stuffs to make them of,
shoes, wigs, jewels, perfumes, weapons for war and for
sport, provisions of all sorts in profusion, more things
^o drink than he knew what to do with, even servants
>bliged to wait on him, boats destined to carry him and
lis servants and his animals and his baggage along the
mals of the other world; but this wealth itself was a
)urce of care and fear to him. The weariness of living
jternally in the tomb, shut in by the thickness of the
^alls and by virtue of the funeral incantations, was to
lie a second death. No soul hitherto accustomed to the
>pen sunshine and the fresh north breeze would be
'resigned to vegetate for ever in the close atmosphere of
two or three permanently sealed chambers. On the
>ther hand, it was a difficult road which led through the
md of the gods to the banks of the heavenly Nile on
^hich the Boat of Ra made its journeys, or to the innu-
lerable islands where the good Osiris had established
ler paradise of lalou. It was necessary to traverse more
137
s^
<^.
138 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
than one strange country, to cross streams of boiling
water and deserts infested with serpents, to fight battles
with tribes of genii and gods who haunted certain
districts, or to gain their good-will ; it was a long, adven-
turous voyage, and the first doubles who undertook it
without a guide, or a guide-book, had their work cut
out to reach their destination safe and sound with their
convoy of merchandise and terrified attendants.
How did the survivors come to know this? Directly
they were informed, they tried to come to the rescue of
their dead friends, and, as they had a personal interest
in facilitating the migrations of the douhles, they were
quick to invent efficient methods. They noted the name
and the situation of the mystic regions, the character,
the manners of the beings who dwelt in them, the nature
of the dangers to be avoided. Their task was the more
complicated as paradises were numerous in Egypt,
and manifold were the ways that led to each one of
them. It was necessary to give information of all pos-
sible itineraries, so that the soul might be in a position
to choose its last sojourn, and to reach it without going
astray. When a halting-place or a new danger was dis-
covered, a special chapter was devoted to it, and all the
chapters put together soon formed several works of
varying lengths. To be of much use it should have been
committed to memory by believers during their lifetime,
in order that they might be ready for the great journey
when their hour was come, but that was an obligation
from which they preferred to be dispensed. To obviate the
difficulties entailed by such negligence, the geography
of the land beyond the tomb was taught after death.
One of the priests, who dressed the corpse, sang in his
ears the pieces of which one or other of the compilations
was composed, or often, even, all the compilations, one
after the other. The double retained what he wished,
and took from it the information useful to guide him
■
EGYPTIAN 'BOOK OF THE DEAD' 139
correctly during his expedition. It seems that this oral
instruction sufficed for the generations that built the
Pyramids. Later it was doubtless perceived that memory
does not always perfectly serve those who trust to it.
The double had not heard or understood properly, it
forgot the formulas, mixed them up, and altering
them, falsified their meaning, or lessened their value.
It seemed a better plan to give them the texts that had
hitherto simply been recited to them, written down, and
the most important were traced on the boards of the
coffin, on the sides of the sarcophagus, on the walls of
the funerary cha'mber, lastly on a papyrus roll placed
near the mummy, or under its wrappings. Copies of
the Book of the Dead may be counted to-day by the
hundred; the smallest European museum has at least
a fragment.
It has been several times translated into French,
English, and German ; one of the most distinguished
Egyptologists, Sir Peter Le Page Renouf, was issuing a
new interpretation of it when death interrupted his work
in October 1897. Le Page Renouf was English, in
spite of the French form of his name, or rather he was
a native of Guernsey, one of those Norman islands
which have given England so many good servants. A
family tradition has it that his ancestor was a page of
Duguesclin, and that the name Le Page is due to that
ancestor's function. He took an active part in the re-
ligious controversies of the middle of the nineteenth
century, became an Inspector of Schools, and after-
wards keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian antiqui-
ties in the British Museum. Like so many others, he
scattered his work among the reviews, and the greater
number of his essays have disappeared ; only those who
have had the patience to seek out their hiding-places
have any idea of what Egyptology owes him. His
translation is accompanied by a commentary, in which
h
140 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the chief difficulties of the text are pointed out, and
the mythological allusions briefly explained.^ It is
the clearest of those which we possess, but in these
matters clearness is relative. The larger part of the
prayers collected in the Book of the Dead contain
allusions to facts or concepts which had nothing mys-
terious about them when they were written down. The
various legends of Osiris, or the solar myths, were
familiar to the Egyptians of the middle class, and even
the common people knew most of them, if not in detail,
at least generally. It was admitted, for instance, that
the sun changed boats during the day, and it was a
commonplace in the schools that one was called Saktit,
and the other MazU. They were not entirely alike,
either in equipment, form, decoration, or rigging; each
possessed particular properties, and offered the god dif-
ferent facilities of navigation. The Theban or Mem-
phian, learned in his religion, was ignorant of nothing
concerning them, and their name, introduced into the
text in this or that place, immediately turned his mind
to a series of known events. That mythology is a dead
letter for us, and it costs us much toil to conjure up
ideas and images that the words SaktU and MazU at
once aroused in the devout Egyptian of ancient days.
We require hours of application and pages of com-
mentary before catching even a vague glimpse of what
he saw clearly on a cursory reading. Le Page Renouf's
translation is, like the others, only accessible to the
expert Egyptologist; without previous preparation it
would merely present a series of words and phrases
without apparent meaning.
The chapters are numerous, and all the copies do not
contain the same number; the most complete papyri
contain from 150 to 180. They are composed of a title,
* Lepage- Renouf: The Book of the Dead^ reprinted from the Pro-
ceedings 0/ the Society of Biblical Archceolo^y^ Books I-VI, 1890-97.
I
EGYPTIAN 'BOOK OF THE DEAD' 141
hich sets forth the object of the prayer, of a formula,
which is the prayer itself, of a vignette, which illustrates
the words of the text by a picture, or a series of pictures ;
metimes a rubric adds instructions to the dead on the
anner of reciting the piece, or of consecrating an
amulet in which its virtues are concentrated. The title
nd the vignette are usually the most interesting parts.
The title sets forth the purpose which originally inspired
its composition ; it shows the ideas of the Egyptians
oncerning the human soul, and the kind of existence
hat awaited it beyond the tomb. It was the life of this
iworld transported to the next, with all its pleasures and
all its troubles. In a vignette the defunct is seen leav-
ing his hypogeum to reach the sojourn of his dreams.
Staff in hand, he sets foot on the first declivities of the
western mountain, behind which the lands of the shades
extend infinitely. He reaches the boundary of the real
world, and, in a second vignette, we assist at the wel-
ome given him there. A sycamore, with thick foliage
laden with figs, marks the frontier, and a woman, thrust-
ing half her body out of the trunk, offers the traveller
(a tray filled with loaves and fruit, and a vase full of
water. If he refuses, he cannot go forward, he must
go back and return to this world; if he accepts, the
bread and water make him the vassal of the gods, and
give him free access to the mysterious plains. He is
obliged to use great caution in walking, to keep eyes
open and ears alert, in order not to perish by a second
death, which would leave nothing of him remaining.
In a series of miniatures we see him fighting with lance
or dagger against serpents of various sizes and various
degrees of venom, against poisonous insects, against a
tortoise, against a big red ass, the incarnation of the
evil spirit, Set-Typhon. Elsewhere a boat appears to
take him to one of the domains of Osiris; it is a fairy
boat, and asks him questions : he has to name and
142 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
describe in detail the parts of which the boat is made.
The scene is realistically portrayed, the double standing
on the bank, the hand raised in a supplicating gesture,
the inquisitive boat, with its crew of divinities, in front
of him. After examining these pictures, there is no
longer any doubt of the meaning to be attached to the
book itself; it is a guide-book and manual of conversa-
tion for the other world, for the use of souls in quest of
a suitable paradise.
The titles and vignettes, then, of the compilation
explain themselves, but difficulties accumulate as soon
as we have crossed that threshold and try to penetrate
the formulas. The greater part of them are the actual
speeches pronounced by the defunct in such or such
circumstances indicated by the title. The infernal ser-
pents would not easily have succumbed to his lance had
he not combined the power of magic words with the
action of his arm. The orator is careful not to mention
that he is a human double, for such a confession would
have encouraged his adversary, and left him little chance
of success. He exclaims loudly that he is a god, several
gods, all the gods, that on many occasions he has
massacred redoubtable enemies, that no one has ever
resisted him. If the oration is given without a mistake,
with appropriate tone and gesture, the effect is irresist-
ible ; it acts on the senses of the serpent like an incanta-
tion, it makes him believe that he is confronted with the
personages evoked, and not with a double trembling with
fear, so his strength leaves him, and he falls after more
or less hard fighting. The Egyptians are fond of talking ;
many of the chapters are fifty lines long, and to recite
them in accordance with the proper ceremony would
take at least half-an-hour. Some became almost cele-
brated as soon as they were deciphered, as, for instance.
Chapter 125, which contains what Champollion called
the Negative Confession, The double, taken before the
EGYPTIAN 'BOOK OF THE DEAD' 143
/Ouncil of Osiris, calls each of the councillors to wit-
less, and swears to him that he has not committed any
^f the acts blamed by custom or law; the purity of the
loral teaching, the spirit of gentleness and charity
rith which his words are imbued, has called forth the
tdmiration of persons least inclined to become enthusi-
astic about Egyptian matters. The case is, unhappily,
>mewhat unusual; mythological allusions predominate,
md make the reading difficult even for experts. It is
lot that the thoughts lack elevation or poetry, or that
the form is without literary merit, but all the images
ind concepts that the Egyptians put into it belong to
m order of ideas so foreign to ours that a prolonged
Effort is required before we can enter into them. When,
ifter careful study, we succeed in discovering the pas-
iges which must have most impressed the Egyptians,
^e are able to perceive their beauty although we still
lespair of making others feel what we have learned to
jel ; the amount of detailed explanation required makes
)o great a demand on the attention.
XVIII
EGYPTIAN ANIMATED STATUES
The Egyptians, high and low, did nothing without
consulting the gods. Whether it was a journey to be
undertaken by an ordinary individual, or a fleet to be
dispatched by a queen to the shores of the Indian Ocean,
both citizen and sovereign would repair to the temple to
receive the advice of the divinity, and his reply in-
fluenced their final decision. The ceremonial was not
the same in both cases : the man of the people explained
his business to the priest, who put him into relation with
the god and obtained a decision for him ; the Pharaoh,
himself a god and the son of a god, addressed his divine
father or brother without a go-between. But whatever
the rite or the ceremony, the deed and the result were
identical in both cases. The god represented by his
image, heard the request, indicated his advice by some
means or other, and the believer acted in accordance with
the expression of the supposed superhuman will.
The methods used by Amon, or Phtah, or Osiris, or
indeed any of the divinities worshipped in the temples,
for commanding or advising their believers were in-
finitely varied; they sent prophetic dreams, they spoke
in a mysterious voice, they revealed themselves by differ-
ent sounds, by actions, by signs, and what had at first
been a spontaneous manifestation on their part, their
servants here below, the priests and magicians, learned
to obtain by certain practices of unfailing effect. Their
statues especially were privileged to give the answers
144
I
EGYPTIAN ANIMATED STATUES 145
asked of them, not any sort of statue, but idols made
and prepared expressly for that duty. To my knowledge
we do not possess any specimen of them; as far as we
can conjecture, they were most often of wood, painted
or gilded like the ordinary statues, but made of jointed
pieces which could be moved. The arm could lift itself
as high as the shoulder or elbow, so that the hand could
place itself on an object and hold it or let it go. The
head moved on the neck, it bent back and fell again to
ts place. The legs do not seem to have been jointed,
nd it is improbable that the complicated business of
alking was exacted of them. The statue, now finished
n the image of the divinity for whom it provided cor-
poreal form, had to be animated; the being of whom it
was the portrait was evoked for that purpose, and by
means of operations still imperfectly known a portion
of himself w-as projected into the wood, a soul, a
oublcy a power which never more left it. In this way
errestrial gods were constructed, exact counterparts of
he celestial gods, their ambassadors on earth, as it were,
apable of protecting, punishing, and teaching mankind,
f sending them dreams, of speaking an oracle. When
they were addressed, they had recourse to one of two
methods, gesture or voice. They took up the word, and
pronounced the verdict suitable to the business in hand
either in a few words or in a long speech. They moved
iarms and head to an invariable rhythm. It was not
considered miraculous, it was part of everyday life, and
consultation of the gods belonged to the usual functions
of the chiefs of the state, kings or queens. The monu-
ments present numberless examples, in the great Theban
epoch and in the time that followed it.
Here is one of the most ancient, and I quote it first,
because the god speaks directly. The queen Hatshop-
Isouitou contemplated the dispatch of a squadron to the
regions that produce sweet spices, but the voyage was
L
146 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
long and dangerous, the route ill defined, the situation
of the incense districts uncertain, and she hesitated to
enter on an adventure of so doubtful an issue. So one
day she repaired to the Temple of Karnak, and confided
her anxiety to her lord Amonra, the patron of her race.
" When the sovereign had poured out her supplications
before the master of Karnak, a command was heard in
the holy place, a counsel of the god himself, to explore
the ways that lead to Pouanit and to traverse the roads
that lead to the Ports of Incense; and on their return to
bring the products of that Divine Land to the god who had
modelled the beauties of the queen." Thus encouraged
she dispatched six vessels on a voyage of discovery, and
when they returned laden with sweet spices, the god
thanked them with more speeches, the tenor of which
may be read on one of the walls of the temple of Deir El-
Bahari.i Conversations between gods and kings were
not rare in the temples, and it is not without reason
that most of the legends that accompany the pictures
engraved on the walls are in dialogue form ; the decora-
tive custom corresponded to an almost everyday reality.
In other cases the statue was silent, and indicated its
opinion by a gesture; it nodded its head twice emphatic-
ally to say yes. One of the most curious of these pieces,
found in the Temple of Khonsou at Thebes, tells how a
Syrian princess, sister-in-law of Ramses II, fell ill, and
was for a long while possessed by a demon or by the soul
of a dead person. As the Asiatic magicians did not suc-
ceed in freeing her from the spirit, her father insisted that
his son-in-law should apply to the cleverest exorciser in
Egypt. But that personage did not consider himself
strong enough to struggle with the evil spirit, and so
recourse was had to a more efficacious intervention, to
that of Khonsou himself. Ramses went to the temple,
and addressed the statue : ** Dear Lord, behold me here
1 Cf. Chapter VIII.
The God Khonsou, Head of a Statue found in the Temple of Khonsou, at Karnak.
page 146.
EGYPTIAN ANIMATED STATUES 147
before thee for the sake of the daughter of the prince of
Bakhtan." Then he ordered the image which drove out
evil spirits to be brought, and placing it in front of the
other said : ** Dear Lord, if thou wilt deign to turn thy
face towards this statue, made after thy image and which
drives out evil spirits, we may venture to send it to
Bakhtan." And again Khonsou nodded his head em-
phatically twice. Then Ramses replied : ** Endow it
with thy power so that I may send it to Bakhtan to
elieve the daughter of the prince." And again
honsou nodded his head emphatically twice. His
consent gained, the transference of the effluvium which
permitted the statue to do its work had to be effected.
The ceremony was quite simple. The person or ob-
ject to be thus treated was placed, kneeling, crouching
or upright as circumstance demanded, the back towards
the object or person who was to treat them. After a
ew formalities the statue or the person raised his hand,
nd made several passes over the back of the other's
eck. The effluvium flowed into the recipiendary, who
ept it until having himself put his hands on the person
o be cured, he suddenly found himself, as it were,
empty. And, in fact, Khonsou arrived at Bakhtan,
made the passes over the princess, and the divine power
lexpelled the demon, after a short interview with him and
with the priest.
It is clear that the statues really spoke in a loud and
intelligible voice; they actually moved their heads and
ands, and as they certainly did not do these things of
hemselves, some one had to do it for them. The Temple
ad, in fact, a priest or a class of priests whose duty it
as to do these things. Their function was not secret,
they performed it openly in the sight and with the
knowledge of all. They had their appointed place in
I the ceremonies and processions, and in the sacerdotal
hierarchy, and all the people knew that the voice or
I
148 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
hand of the god was theirs, and that they pulled the
wires so that he nodded his head at the right moment.
It was none of those pious frauds such as we generally
suspect in like circumstances. Every one knew that the
divine consultation was accomplished by this purely
human intervention. Such being the case, we may ask
how, not only the people, but the scribes, the nobles,
and the kings could put confidence in such counsels.
And if in later times, at least, it became a ceremony of
tradition, kept up out of respect for antiquity, but to
which no importance was any longer attached, the
testimony of the monuments compels us to acknowledge
that it was regarded seriously until the decay of pagan-
ism, and that all who took part in it were filled with
respect for the task they undertook. They were brought
up from childhood to believe that divine souls gave life
to the statues, and to approach them with emotion and
reverential fear. Each time that a believer needed their
services, they prepared themselves by prayers and
ceremonies that reminded them of the seriousness of an
act, the power of which they believed was absolute.
Their condition of mind was akin to that in which the
modern priest goes up to the altar. Directly he has
put on the sacerdotal robes, and recited the first sacra-
mental words, he no longer belongs to himself but to
the sacrifice he is going to consummate, he knows
that the elements will change into the precious flesh and
blood at his voice and gesture, and enters on the work
he is sure of accomplishing without any doubts. With
certain reservations it was just the same in Egypt.
When the prophet had finished his preparations, and
stood near the statue ready to raise his voice for it and
make it move, he did not doubt for an instant that the
god would enter into him, seize him, inspire him; he
thought that a force would lay hold of his being, and
dictate the words and move his hand. I admit the
EGYPTIAN ANIMATED STATUES 149
possibility that fraud may sometimes have had a part
in his actions, but could it not be said that the god,
foreknowing all, so arranged things that the fault of his
servant would favour his designs? The prevaricating
priest, thinking to force the divine purpose and to de-
ceive the believer, was a victim of his own manoeuvre,
and only declared what Amon wished him to declare.
The gods, then, directly governed the life of the
(Egyptians and the policy of their kings. They had
their appointed place in the deliberations, and their
lecrees might seldom be disregarded. Such intervention,
fhich we should find very tiresome, was not so regarded
►y any of the nations of antiquity, and we find it per-
)etually in Assyria and Chaldaea. The kings of
[ineveh addressed themselves to Ishtar of Arbeles, or
.dad or Shamash, and we possess a series of their con-
lultations on a number of questions relating to the
|domestic or foreign affairs of the empire under Asarhad-
lon and Assourbanabal. In short, the gods ruled the
incient world, and its contemporaries were not far
Tong when they doubled every war between men with
second war between the gods. The prophetic statues
[spoke for both sides when the armies came to close
[quarters, and their commands did not cease to arrive
'direct as long as the campaign lasted. It was indeed
themselves who were conquered if the fortunes of war
went against their nation, and they shared its fate.
When the victor did not kill them in conquering them,
he took them prisoners, and placed them in the Temples
of their adversaries to serve as slaves as much as by
way of trophies. If perchance they were later restored
to their former owners, an inscription was carefully
engraved on them commemorating their defeat and
captivity.
XIX
WHAT THE EGYPTIANS SCRIBBLED ON THEIR WALLS
I
It is certain that tourists are gradually spoiling the
monuments of Egypt by writing their names on them
in big or small letters. Persons of taste are irritated
when they come across them, and the directors of the
antiquities exhaust themselves in searching for hard
words in which to censure such practices in their reports.
It is their strict duty to do this, and I, like the rest, have
done my share. And yet, if the archaeologists and his-
torians of to-day would reflect a little, what fine fellows
these inscription-makers are, and what an amount of in-
genious work they are preparing for the students of the
future I Henri Durand of Paris inscribed his name in
1882 on one of the blocks of the Great Pyramid. John
Brown cut his in the neighbourhood in 1883, Fritz Muller
scrawled his above the other two in 1884, and they may
be tracked from Gizeh to the First Cataract through the
temples and tombs ; towards the end of the journey they
become bolder, and each ventures on admiring or humor-
ous reflections in accordance with the spirit of his nation.
They are too near us to seem anything but absurd, but
let a hundred years pass by, and distance will endow
them with a certain prestige. A century ago, French
soldiers quartered at Edfou, in the dark chambers of the
Pylon, amused themselves by tracing legends and draw-
ings on the wall. Names, dates, hearts burning with
protestations of affection for their native land, a fine
windmill that still exists, perhaps, in some corner of
150
SCRIBBLINGS ON WALLS 151
France are to be seen; the cavalry fraternized with the
infantry in its love of the native soil and its contempt for
grammar, but I do not know which of the two arms pro-
claimed in its pride, the French are conquerors every-
where. It is a piece of France which still lives in the
shade of the old temple of Horus, light cavalry, grena-
diers, light infantry, a hundred or a hundred and fifty
men in all, and a very slight effort of the imagination
suffices to see them in the course of their monotonous
life. Drill, continual sentry duty at the top of the two
Uowers that guard the Nile, or the outlets into the Libyan
desert, reconnoitring in the still insubordinate villages
in order to reach the posts of Esneh or Daraou, skirm-
ishes, and perchance a comrade mournfully buried in the
little cemetery on the north side of the town ; in the inter-
vals, without forgetting the girls of France, they courted
the girls of Egypt who, judging by certain features of
European physiognomy to be seen among the inhabit-
ants, were not indifferent to their affection. Menou forgot
them when he evacuated the Said in 1800; they stayed
at their post, in spite of assaults, for a few months until
a Bey rescued them and enrolled them in his service.
They then formed the largest contingent of the French
Mamelukes who played an important part in the early
wars of Mehemet Ali.
The Egyptians of Pharaoh travelled at times, and, like
Cook's tourists, scribbled with all their might and main
on the monuments they came across. The pyramid of
Meydoum had so stoutly resisted the excavators, even
Mariette, that it was thought to be untouched, and
great things were expected of it. When I entered it in
1881, the first thing I saw was a scribe's name, the scribe
Sokari, written in ink on the ledge of the door, and by
I its side mention of his colleague, Amonmosou. They
scribbled under the XVIIIth Dynasty, more than 2000
years after the pyramid was built, and they went to see
152 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the tomb of King Snofroui just as we visit that of
Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle. They penetrated into
the corridors that led to the vault, a thing seldom
done; it meant a difficult climb up the north side of the
pyramid to reach the opening, and many hesitated to
risk their necks. They stayed at the foot of the pile, in
the little chapel where the worship of the Pharaoh had
formerly been celebrated, and as they were not out of
breath with climbing, or thinking of the chances of acci-
dent offered by a perpendicular descent, there was
nothing to prevent them writing their names in a pro-
minent place; they conjured up their classical memories,
and engrossed an enthusiastic formula on one of the
blocks. The son of the same Amonmosou who so briefly
announced his arrival, as shown above, was more elo-
quent than his father, and told in diffuse language how
in the year XLI of Thoutmosis III, " he went to see the
beautiful chapel of Snofroui. He discovered the interior
to be like the sky when Ra, the Sun, rose, and he
exclaimed, * the heavens rain myrrh and so an incense
falls on the front of Snofroui's chapel.' " And as if such
noble poetry would not have been acceptable to the soul
of the sovereign without the addition of some substantial
wish, he addressed himself to future generations and
asked them to pray for him. " All of you who pass by
here and read these words, whether you be scribes,
magicians or priests, if you love life and desire the praise
of the gods of your towns, and to transmit your offices
to your children, and then to be buried in the necropolis
of Memphis in old age, after a long sojourn on earth,
say : ' Offerings to Osiris, Ra, Amon, Anubis, that these
gods may grant all imaginable provisions to the spirit of
King Snofroui and Queen Marisonkhis his wife.' " He
was succeeded later by others who, finding his prose to
their taste, appropriated pieces of it, and recopied on
their own account what he had said on his.
SCRIBBLINGS ON WALLS 153
Those old travellers were not morei critical or discerning
in the objects of their admiration than our tourists are.
They went into ecstasies over everything shown them
provided it was very old, and if they deciphered the texts
engraved on the tombs, they did not understand them
properly. One of the feudal nobles buried at Beni-
Hassan told that he had governed a town, the name of
which, exactly translated into English, is the Nurse-
Cheops, Had it been destroyed since his time? At any
rate it was no longer known under the XVIIIth Dynasty,
and the scribes who then climbed up to the hypogeum
had never heard it mentioned. Seeing the name of
Cheops in several places, they concluded that the paint-
ings had been made for that king, and that they were in
his house, in his syringe, and then they recorded their
opinion in a half-dozen ecstatic scrawls: '* Here came
the scribe Thoutii," or the scribe Amonmosou, or the
:ribe Rai. *' When I came to view the beautiful chapel
>f Cheops, I found its interior like the heavens, when the
mn rises and well provided with fresh incense.'* They
Fall into error with much ease, their appreciation is
lonotonous, and many of them are content merely to
testify in five or six words that they had been there.
|Others, however, are kind enough to confide to us under
[what king they honoured the monument with their
presence, in what year, under what circumstances, and
their vanity has made them the unconscious auxiliaries
>f learning. It was in the year XL of such a sovereign,
jjust when his Majesty w^as sailing from Memphis to
[Thebes to inaugurate a temple, or when he returned
[from his third campaign in Ethiopia, and the king, and
this buildings, and his journeys, and his victories would
[be unknown to us if one of the scribes of the escort had
not been seized with the passionate desire of writing at
Lthe sight of a wall placed well in the public view. Thou-
sands of others were victims of a like mania during
154 ^EW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
centuries, and thanks to them we glean dates, facts, royal
cartouches everywhere ; dynasties are put together again
with what they teach us; piece by piece the history of
Egypt is built up. They also add details about their
own family, their own particular destiny, the reason of
their going there, and that reason is often very extra-
ordinary. The Egyptians prided themselves on being
consummate magicians, and then, as now, the ceme-
teries, especially those which were deserted, were the
places best suited to the sorcerers' operations. Aban-
doned spirits, who died of hunger in their tombs, were
inclined to assist the works of magic which might pro-
cure them food. The pyramids themselves served as a
refuge for good or evil beings, and a rite performed at
the due hour, with the necessary words, would make
them for a brief space subservient to the desires of the
operator.
In the year L of Ramses II, the scribe Panoua, who
lived at Memphis or in the environs, went one night to
the tomb of a certain Shopsisouphtah, who had flourished
twenty centuries before and in his time had possessed
the reputation of great skill in supernatural matters. He
brought the suitable books of magic, arid, taking up his
position in the chapel, set himself to perform the
ceremonies for evoking the spirits. If everything went
well an enormous serpent would appear to him, the
serpent which hides itself in the pyramid of the Pharaoh
Sahouri, and in the form of which the soul of the king
was pleased to reveal itself. Panoua wished to inquire of
him for a recipe which would prolong his earthly exist-
ence to the age of no, an age that no mortal had been
able to go beyond. The prayers were powerful, for they
were taken from books compiled by the god Phtah him-
self, but doubtless the time was unfavourable; he went
on to the eleventh incantation without success, then grew
discouraged and returned home, but before leaving, in-
SCRIBBLINGS ON WALLS 155
B^ account of the unfruitful seance. Elsewhere, sick per-
V sons, after consulting an oracle, scribbled a compliment
to the god or goddess who healed them in miraculous
fashion, on a neighbouring rock or on a wall of the
chapel. One believer uttered a cry of anguish to his
patron : '* Do not desert me, Oh Ra-Harmakhis !" and
I signed himself, '* the scribe Thoutmosis of the Necro-
polis." An employ^ in the canals and irrigation depart-
ment registered the beginning of the rise, or the day the
dykes were broken : " The year X, the 13th of the second
month of summer, that day there was a great rising of
the Nile." Contented persons had nothing but praise
for their superiors or equals, and confided their feelings
to the walls. Discontented persons acted in the same
way, and so we now possess some of the satires in which
their ill-humour found vent. The archivist Phtahshadou
has forgotten to tell us his master's misdeeds; he was
contented to write a couplet on the rock at Thebes in
which he vigorously lashed his chief. ** My master's
order, it is a crocodile. Its tooth is in the water, but
where ? Its teeth are in the canal on the west, and its eye
winks." It seems to have been considered most extremely
comic, and three-quarters of the Inhabitants of Thebes
were suffocated with laughter for weeks, but the flavour of
the gibe has evaporated, and many annotations are
needed to recall it. It must first be remembered that the
crocodile is a treacherous animal that keeps in muddy
water in the canal all day, pretending to be asleep in order
not to alarm his prey; the paintings in the tombs show
him stretched out in a meditative attitude, his tail quiet,
his mouth shut, with an innocent air as if he was only
a big, harmless leopard. At the moment w^hen it is least
expected, a turn of the tail, two bites of the teeth, a
,; plunge, and a sheep, a dog, a man has disappeared.
Phtahshadou received an order of harmless aspect but
156 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
dangerous to carry out, and he compared it to the
felonious crocodile, but he did not know where the danger
would come in ; he only guessed that he risked his life,
and therefore he spoke of the canal which was on the
west and which had to be crossed in order to reach the
tomb. That: is the explanation, but even so, many of us
will not perceive the humour of the piece any more than
we did before. How many centuries will be needed
before the satires of to-day will require an archaeological
commentary, and throw those who still believe in the
tradition of French wit into wondering astonishment?
A German, Spiegelberg, a careful student and com-
mentator of these inscriptions, like all of his race, has
collected several thousands of them at Thebes alone, and
has not exhausted the material. The more he transcribes,
the more he discovers. I do not complain, for these
scratchings tell us new things about the old Egyptian
people, so long buried, so lately exhumed. How, then,
can we continue to blame the European tourists who
disfigure the walls, when we copy and study with such
tender care the slightest scribblings of their ancient
predecessors ?
XX
EGYPTIAN LOVE POETRY
When we look at a mummy in the Turin, or any other
uropean museum, and see a packet of dry bones
arely covered with a brown skin, and features con-
tracted by the embalmment into a sad or grotesque
rimace, some imagination is required to restore the
Wegant, slender girl, whose subtle charms intoxicated
the young gallants of Thebes during her youth, or even
he old woman, deformed and faded, who, dreaming in
he evening by candle-light of her former lovers, croons,
n low tones, the love-songs of her youth. Go into
nother room of the museum, and ask for the case of
papyri to be opened; there you will find a collection
of these songs, mutilated, stained, full of lacunas, but
sufficiently legible in many places for long fragments
to be authoritatively translated, and to inform us how
passion was expressed amongst a people destined to
end as numbered exhibits in the glass cases of our
I museums. The remains were collected and translated
first by Goodwin, ^ then by myself ;2 they have just
been studied for a third time by Max Miiller, a German
scholar settled in America. ^ The translation is well
done, and the commentary clear, if occasionally too exotic
in expression ; the work is one of those which may be
iread with interest by persons who are not experts, and if
^ Goodwin : " The Papyrus Harris," No. 400, in the Transactions of
the Society of Biblical Archceology, Vol. iv, pp. 380-388.
2 Maspero : Etudes Egyptiennes, Vol. i, pp. 216-259.
^ Max Miiller : Die Liebespoesie der Alien ^gypter, Leipzig, 1899.
157
158 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
it contains doubtful passages which invite discussion by
Egyptologists, the whole gives a faithful rendering of
the style of the original.
Love poems must have been very numerous in
Egyptian literature. We already possess more or less con-
siderable fragments of three collections written during
the second Theban epoch, about the thirteenth century
B.C., and fragments of other pieces have been found even
on funerary stelas. It is certain that a portion at least of
the little pieces then collected by the scribes were of much
earlier date, and had long been orally current. They
formed a common reserve in which lovers dipped at
will, and on which each embroidered themes in accord-
ance with his special needs. The musicians recited
them to the accompaniment of the theorbo, harp or lute,
in private houses or in the streets, just as the singers
and almehs of our day make Arab verses in Cairo, or in
Upper Egypt. If any one who has lived in districts in
which European influence is not too predominant, will
carry his present experiences back a thousand years, he
will be easily able to reconstruct those ancient concerts.
In the paintings of the Theban hypogeums we see the
executants with their dress, their instruments, their
gestures, their audience. The manuscripts of our
museums suggest the ideas and words which animated
the picture. The effect produced on the audience was
doubtless similar to those described in so curious a
manner in the Arabian Nights, The minstrel revelled
in prolonged roulades and strange conceits, he sighed
during the tender passages, he wept or sobbed when the
hero or heroine sang of their despair, and he accentuated
the intensity of his different feelings by suppressed gut-
tural exclamations still affected by the artist of to-day.
I have sometimes tried to adapt one or other of the old
pieces to the Arab melodies heard on the Nile, often with
success. We can imagine that the old airs, now lost,
EGYPTIAN LOVE POETRY 159
were modulated in the same way as modern ones, accom-
panied by arpeggios on stringed instruments, or by the
simultaneous beating of tambourines.
The motives employed in the three collections are
identical with those of the Arabs, and some have a
modern appearance. It is now the lover, now his lady,
or, to use the ancient term, his sister. The expression
is characteristic of the Egyptian family, where the sister
by father and mother was by right the favourite wife of
her brother, but the custom held good for all other
romen, and here it designates the mistress generally,
whatever her social rank, lady or servant, young girl or
courtesan. In one of the pieces at the beginning she
;ems to have nothing more to refuse her lover, and he
lescribes the charms she reveals with significant
dvacity, but elsewhere things do not seem to be so far
advanced; the lover complains of the fair one*s severity,
ind invents tricks to bring her to his house. ** I shall
ceep my bed at home, and as I am sick, my neighbours
dll come and see me, my sister will come with them ;
fhe will make the physicians ashamed, for she well
:nows my malady I" If that artifice does not succeed,
^he thinks of introducing himself into her house among
her visitors : "My sister's villa; ... ah I if I might be its
porter ! Even if my sister were vexed with me, I should
listen to her angry voice like a little child trembling
with fear." This doubtful favour does not long content
him, and he asks for more : '* Oh ! that I were her black
slave, she who is always with her I I should see all the
beauty of her body !" He would be the ring she wears
on her finger, the garland of flowers that surrounds her
neck and caresses her breast; at need he would have no
scruple in giving her a love-potion which would decide
her to open her door. He even undertakes a pilgrimage
to the temples of Memphis, in the hope that the gods
invoked by him will intervene in his "favour: I go
i6o NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
down the river in a boat, the water stirred by the rowing
of the crew; my bouquet of myrtle on my shoulder, I
direct my course to the city of Onkhtaoui, and I shall say
to Phtah : * Give me my sister, this night.* '* At length
he obtains the object of his desire, and his mistress joins
him at the trysting-place : "When I see my sister
coming, my heart beats fast, my arms open to enfold
her; my heart rejoices with everlasting joy when my
lady arrives. If she embraces me, and her arms open
for me, it is as if I were anointed with the perfumes of
Arabia, with the sweetest odours ! If she kisses me with
her half-opened lips, I am intoxicated without need of
beer!"
But it is not the man who plays the chief part in these
erotic collections; the woman is on the stage more often
than he is, the woman deserted, or fearing to be so.
She enjoyed so much liberty in Egypt that the Greeks
thought her all-powerful in the family, and her husband
was her slave. It was she who most often took the initia-
tive, and ran to meet desire. She seized the first pretext
to offer herself, perhaps one of the hunting parties in
the marshes, many of which are depicted on the walls
of the tombs. " The beauties of thy sister, the beloved
of thy heart, go down into the meadows, oh, my dearest
brother ! my heart does what may be agreeable to thee,
and all it may please thee to invent, I say to thee, ' It
is done.' I have gone to the hiding-place, trap in hand,
and my cage and my case. All the birds of Arabia
come down on Egypt, perfumed with myrrh, and he who
flies above my head has pricked my bait, bringing his
odour from Arabia, his feet full of sweet-smelling gums.
My heart burns that we should take them together, I
alone with thee, and that I should make thee hear the
shrill voice of my bird perfumed with myrrh. If I obtain
that thou art there where I am, with me, I will manage
my trap, oh, my dearest love, thou who comest to his
EGYPTIAN LOVE POETRY i6i
I ., . ..„..„ ,.,
^appeal; she laments, forgets to watch her trap, lets the
game escape. " The voice of the wild goose who has
touched the bait is heard, but thy love is not for me, and
I do not know how to free myself from it. I will remove
my nets, but what shall I say to my mother, to whom
I return each day, laden with the birds I have caught ?
I only set my trap to-day to take thy love prisoner."
Nothing would be easier than to restore in detail the
picture briefly indicated by the poet ; it would suffice to
take one of the paintings from a Theban tomb that
represents hunting with nets, and to put them in charge
of the love-lorn girl instead of in that of the customary
slaves. The theme is often repeated, with variants, that
I how what a favourite one it was. Sometimes the joy of
3ve is described. "The voice of the turtle-dove
^ heard," she says; " here is the dawn, and, weary as
;am, where shall I go? Not so, my beauteous bird I
j^hile you disputed with me, I found my brother in
is bed, and my heart more joyful than can be
xpressed; for I shall never leave him more, but, hand
in hand, I shall go with him through all the beautiful
aces; he makes me the first of women, he who does
akes glad my heart." Then he deserts her, and the
ments of the unhappy woman, who does not accept
e rupture, are poignant: ** I keep my face turned to-
ards the door, for that way comes my brother. My
o eyes watch the road, my two ears listen, I turn
Id, for my brother's love is my sole possession, and
about all that concerns him my heart will never be
ilent. And see, he sends me a messenger, swift of
ot, as soon there as gone, to tell me — * I am delayed.*
h ! say, rather, that thou hast found another mistress I
h ! thou whose face is false, why break the heart of
other by thy infidelity?"
If the structure of these pieces is closely examined,
II
i62 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
some attempt at style^ a refinement of expression, a
certain grace is to be recognized. Some of them are
conceived almost in the manner of the Italian stornelli.
They begin with the name of a flower, on which the poet
plays for several phrases; unfortunately, the rhyming
of the syllables, to which he has recourse in order to com-
pare this or that virtue of his mistress with the flower's
name, cannot be put into any modern language, and
it makes a literal translation almost impossible. The
other rhythms are more easily perceived, and if we do not
always succeed in realizing the special charm that the
choice of a particular word, or the employment of certain
grammatical turns, gives to the thought, the development
of the thought, at any rate, remains, and in places is so
transparent and natural that we find pleasure in follow-
ing it even in its modern garb. I have more than once
in Egypt uncorked a bottle of essence picked up in a
tomb. It did not exhale any definite perfume, but a
vague odour, of which it could not be said that it was
either agreeable or unpleasant, and the sensation of
which vanished directly a definition of it was attempted.
If we try to analyze the form of these love songs, the
poetry contained in them would vanish in the same
way; it must be seized quickly and enjoyed without
plan or purpose, without attempting to define its nature
or to analyze its component parts.
XXI
CAN THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIP*
TIONS BE DISCOVERED?
Experts in Egyptology know that the little animals
in single-file processions scattered over the Egyptian
tmonuments are signs of letters or syllables, and that each
Ipossesses its fixed value, with which for the most part
[we are familiar. If on a sarcophagus in the Louvre
^ou come across a crouching hare with its ears, and what
jars I pricked, and a horned serpent gliding behind it,
my Egyptologist will explain to you in a couple of
Iwords that the hare represents a verb comprising an
[ow and an n, that the serpent is the pronoun of the
third person singular masculine, and corresponds to
>ur letter /, and lastly, that the whole is transcribed
ou-\-7i + fy and means he is. It is a fine result, and Cham-
pollion as well as his pupils had cause for congratulation
when they had obtained it; it has since been registered
in all the grammars of hieroglyphics of which beginners
avail themselves, and for a long time there the science
began and ended. But this combination of the three
sounds ou-^n + j is not easy to pronounce off-hand, and
instinctively professors and students have introduced a
vowel between n and /, the weakest and least compromis-
ing of the vowels, a slightly open e.^ Those who read
Egyptian aloud, a pleasure granted to few persons in
this world, are accustomed to say oun-ef. But did the
Egyptians themselves pronounce it that way, and is it
* Pronounce as in French.
163
i64 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
possible to discover what their pronunciation was? It
was contested at first a prioriy and I have not forgotten
the indulgent scepticism with which I was greeted when
nearly a quarter of a century ago I not only declared that
the problem could be solved, but even sketched out a
solution. The years that have passed since then have
destroyed many prejudices and removed many doubts;
a German, Sethe, has placed at the beginning of a
big volume on the Egyptian verb long introductory
chapters forming a veritable treatise on Egyptian pro-
nunciation.^ I am not sure if he has chosen the best
way to reach the goal he aimed at ; it is enough for me
to attest that the problem, at first considered insoluble,
is now one of those that some students claim to have
solved.
No one any longer doubts that the value of the hiero-
glyphic signs has been discovered, and that translations
of historical or literary inscriptions hidden in them can
be furnished. But it is not in this case a question of
transcribing in a modern language the thought contained
in these ancient works; it is a question of restoring the
fashion in which the thought vibrated in the ears of those
who expressed it, to find again the cadence, the modula-
tion, the accent, at need the changes of tone it has under-
gone in the course of ages. We no longer hear it, and
no one has heard it for hundreds of years, but other
races whose language we know did hear it at the time
when it was still spoken, and they made notes of what
they heard. The first time that sailors or Greek mer-
cenaries set foot on the shores of the Delta, they were
obliged to learn to speak the words most needed in daily
intercourse, and some of them, chiefly proper names,
names of towns, names of kings, names of individuals,
names of gods, ended by getting written down in Greek
letters on the tablets of Herodotus, or in the works of
^ Sethe : Das ^gypHsche Verbum^ Vol. i, pp. 3-33.
HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS 165
other Greek historians. When, later, Alexander hud
brought Egypt under the Macedonian rule, numbers of
such words were inserted in public and private acts, in
j the registers of the corvees or of the taxes, in con-
tracts of marriage or of sale, in receipts of tolls or cus-
toms, and they may now be read there by the hundred.
Egyptian names were for the most part formed from
terms borrowed from the very foundation of the language,
ethical terms, names of trades or of divinities, of objects
or of animals. Many persons were called Len^gre,
Lerat, Lachatte, and their names were pronounced like
the same words in the current idiom from which they
were formed. Those who in France have friends called
Lenormant, Picart, Leli^vre, Lebourgeois Lalance make
no difference in sound between those names and the
common terms, Normand, Picard, lievre, bourgeois, or
lance; sometimes the proper name betrays dialectical
I divergences, a*s in Leleu, Lecat, Lequien, by the side of
Leloup, Lechat, Lechien. It was the same in Egypt;
lord Pouhori, otherwise the Dog, has preserved for us
the pronunciation ouhori that the word for dog had when
the Greek scribes fixed its name for the first time. If we
reflect that we already have four or five thousand native
■ names thus clad in Greek letters, it is clear what a re-
source these inscriptions can become for restoring the
pronunciation of the hieroglyphics. There are several
hundreds of isolated words, of nouns accompanied by an
adjective, even of short phrases which come to us as an
echo of the Egypt of the Ptolemies. In writing Ephon-
oukhoSy a name which means he is living, the Greeks
have taught us that the verb corresponding to he is, and
the adjective corresponding to living, are pronounced ef
and onoukhou in Egyptian. Such examples furnish the
material which will restore the phonetics of several of
I^K the paradigms of which Egyptian grammar is composed.
I^K The Greeks made these transcriptions by ear, and the
L
i66 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
ear is often deceptive; it must then be admitted that
they were occasionally in error, and we should not
blindly trust their notation. However, they rarely made
a very bad mistake; most often their spelling shows with
absolute accuracy the position of the accent, the place and
tone of the vowels, the value of the grammatical termina-
tions ; the variants that a name sometimes presents have
always their reasons. With the assistance of these
elements, we come to know how a considerable part of
the Egyptian language was harmonized in the time of
the Ptolemies between the fourth and the first centuries
B.C. That is something, but can we go back still further,
or must we give up the possibility of reviving the sound
and the dialects of earlier times ? For my part I do not
think so, and I count on being able to justify my opinion
one day or another. I do not mean that we shall ever be
able to set up the scale of tones or delicate half-tones in
its entirety which the people used in order to modulate
their words or phrases ; but we shall succeed in knowing
the place in which the vowels are interpolated in each
term, the vocal coloration as a whole of each syllable, the
syllable on which the chief accent is laid, perhaps, also,
the word which received the principal accent in each
phrase. An Egyptian inscription thus vocalized resembles
one of the frescoes in the hypogeums of the ancient
Empire, where the colour is not, as with us, the result of
innumerable delicate and well-blended touches, but of
vast flat tints spread roughly one by the side of the
other. It would be a distant and rude approximation to
nature, but sufficient to recall the original. The idea of
the language thus furnished will harmonize with that of
the people themselves and of their nature which is
derived from the pictures. Those personages, with their
ill-drawn profiles, angular gestures, scanty and stiff
costume, act and live awkwardly, but they act and live.
When we read the inscriptions placed above them,
I
( I
HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS 167
which contain the conversations they held with each
other, in the manner I have indicated, we should doubt-
less receive the impression of a rude, awkward language,
lacking nuances and suppleness, but we should at least
feel something of its melody ; ancient Egypt would cease
to be dumb, and we should begin to hear her voice.
Would the result be worth the trouble it would require
to attain it? It is not only curiosity that drives our
scholars along this path, nor the vanity of having over-
come difficulties deemed insurmountable. The first work
of deciphering, that which consisted in fixing generally
what there was in the Egyptian inscriptions, and in ad-
justing the settings of grammar, history, religion, and
literature, is now finished, three-quarters of a century after
the discovery of Champollion. We are beginning to leave
behind the ** almost '* with which we had to content our-
selves on many points, and, dealing only with literature,
we know the general sense of it sufficiently well to desire
to go into it in detail, and to discover its technique. I
have already analyzed the love songs that we read on
various papyri, and I tried to translate portions of them.^
The idea is often pretty, and the expression happy.
How can we imagine the rhythm, the cadence, the vibra-
tion, all the melopeia of versification that supports and
cradles the thought, if we are never to know how the
Egyptians pronounced their language? Imagine what
would become of the most melodious of Lamartine's
" Meditations " if it should be discovered later under a
ystem of writing which, leaving the consonantal skeleton
of the words, suppressed the vowels ? The poetic
theme and its developments would in the long run appear
through the irregular groups of consonants, but the music
would escape us so long as we could not guess at any
method of reviving the vocalization. Egyptian poetry at
the present time is in the position I suppose Lamartine's
1 Cf. Chapter XX.
i68 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
" Meditations " to be. It is fixed by writing, but we do
not know the art of sol-faing the notation and of read-
ing musically what we decipher grammatically. It will
not be necessary to revive all the shades of articulation.
In order to enjoy the melody of the * ' Chanson de Roland, ' '
we need not pronounce each sound exactly as a Parisian
of the twelfth or thirteenth century would have done : it
is sufficient to recite it with the modern enunciation,
modified a little in certain points. The verse of Virgil
or of Homer, recited in the French fashion, still pre-
serves something of its sonority and measure : it is no
longer the canticle of Roman poetry, but it is a recitative
not lacking in beauty. When we shall nearly pronounce
Egyptian as it was sounded of old, and when Egyptian
poetry has found a melody, we shall be better able to
appreciate the charm of rhythm and sound that went with
its qualities of expression and thought. Egypt had
several great literary ages, the works of which, copied
from generation to generation, formed in the end a real
collection of classics. When we vocalize or declaim
these works with as much facility as we understand them,
we shall perhaps come to recognize that the poetry of
Egypt was not inferior to its plastic arts, and that the
Pharaohs had poets as worthy of our admiration as their
architects and sculptors.
XXII
JONCERNING A RECENTLY DISCOVERED FRAGMENT OF A
COPTIC NOVEL
Arab chroniclers have recorded in their works a com-
plete history of the Pharaohs, which bears no resem-
blance to that derived by us from the monuments. With
very few exceptions the names differ, the narratives are
near relations of the veracious tales of the Arabian
Nights, magic, astrology, alchemy play the largest part,
and kings and ministers appear in them as magicians
or necromancers of superhuman cleverness. Temples,
pyramids, syringes, hypogeums yield their hidden
treasures, treasures of gold and silver, treasures of talis-
mans and amulets, treasures of inscriptions, treasures of
books to which distant ancestors had confided the
mysteries of their wisdom, the incomparable wisdom of
the Egyptians, in order to save it from the elements or
from men, from the deluge of water that inundated the
earth, from barbarous invasions which so often over-
whelmed the valley. Towards the end reminiscences of
the Bible are mingled with these incoherent imaginings,
and the people of Genesis and Exodus, the Pharaoh of
Abraham and of Joseph, Joseph himself, Potiphar's
wife, then the chief Pharaoh, he who persecuted the
Hebrews and perished so miserably in the Red Sea, are
introduced into the circle of magicians. I have shown
I that this mass of extravagance was not a pure and simple
invention of the Arabs, but was derived by them as it
stands from Byzantine writers now lost; they merely
169
I
I70 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
added anecdotes drawn directly from popular sources,
and Mussulman legends grafted on to the Biblical tradi-
tion.^ Egypt, and other provinces under the Empire of
the Caliphs, thought to do very well in almost literally
translating the works offered them by the natives, as
comprising an exact summary of their annals; the sort
of fantastic epic that flourished among them is really the
last deformity that Egypt herself inflicted on her national
history before the invasion of Islam.
She had at that time been long working to replace the
authentic actors by imaginary heroes. Already under
the Ramses a literature of fiction was blossoming forth,
the protagonists of which were the most illustrious kings
of former centuries, those who had built the pyramids,
Cheops, Chephren, Sahouri, or those who had driven
out the Shepherds and conquered Asia, Tiouaqen and
Thoutmosis III. As Dynasties followed Dynasties it went
on increasing, and when in the middle of the fifth century
B.C. Herodotus of Halicarnassus described the wonders
of the Nile for the edification of his fellow-countrymen,
he did not compile an exact list or the actual doings
of the sovereigns; he composed a romantic chronicle in
which real names cover exploits invented in every detail.
His second book is a collection of novels, some of which
are so faithfully transcribed that the form of the Egyptian
original is almost felt beneath the Hellenic dress; for
example, the adventure of Rhampsinitus and the clever
thief, the tragi-comedy of Pheros and his faithless wife,
the miracle of the priest Sethos, the works of Cheops
and of Chephren the impious, the virtues of the devout
Mycerinus. The Saites themselves did not escape this
invasion of fiction, and Bocchoris, Psammetichus I,
Nechao, Apries, and Ahmasis in turn amused the popular
fancy. The remembrance of the truth faded away as
the upper classes and even the scribes lost the easy com-
^ Journal des Savants, pp. 69-86, 154-172. 1899.
FRAGMENT OF A COPTIC NOVEL 171
prehension of the inscriptions copied in the papyri or
engraved on the monuments. The old stories, encum-
bered with names and details that no one understood,
gave place to fictions better suited to the taste of the
day. The pyramids themselves escaped from Cheops
and his successors to become the Granaries of Joseph the
Patriarch, under Christian or Jewish influences. Each
of the Egypts, as they traversed the ages, shortened cer-
tain portions of the preceding chronicle, developed
others, degraded the great men of a former age to absurd
puppets, or promoted obscure men to the dignity of
glorious heroes, corrected, erased, invented, borrowed
from neighbouring nations, and combined the most
heterogeneous plots with so much perseverance and in-
dustry that in the end nothing was left of the ingenious
narratives of the old story-tellers. Some testimony to
the long unconscious labour is to be found in the hieratic
and demotic papyri of Greek writers and Byzantine
compilers; now the Copts have joined the ranks and
begin to send us their contingent.
Two years ago ^ Heinrich Schaefer discovered among
some parchments recently acquired by the Berlin
Museum six large detached sheets of a work in the
Theban dialect; it seemed to him to be a somewhat
different text from those of the ordinary manuscripts
coming from that source.^ They are the only fragments
so far known of a novel the subject of which is the
conquest of Egypt by the Persians. Quite properly,
Cambyses is in the foreground, but a Cambyses to whom
we are unaccustomed. Since he left the hands of
Herodotus he has read the Bible, and having there made
the acquaintance of Nebuchadnezzar, who, like himself,
reigned at Babylon, imagined himself identical with
^ This article appeared in 1900.
^ H. Schaefer : " Bruchstiick eines koptischen Romans iiber die
Eroberung ^gyptens durch Kambyses," extract from the Comptes
Rendus of the BerHn Academy, Vol. xxxviii, pp. 727-744.
172 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
that vainglorious monarch. The East trembles before
him; Pharaoh is his rival, yet not Ahmasis or Psam-
metichus III, as he had so long thought, but Apries,
the Hophra that the Hebrew books give as Nebuchad-
nezzar's adversary. About to attack him, he calls upon
the Syrian peoples to renounce their allegiance to Egypt,
and the first of the fragments introduces him at that
moment. His letter of challenge is couched in strong
terms, but its only effect is to irritate the people to whom
it is addressed; the messengers were on the point of
perishing, when a certain Bothor, ** a man of prudent
counsel and skilful tongue, a hero by his strength and
a champion in battle," thought of a way to save them.
He persuaded the people ignominiously to expel them,
giving them an insulting challenge for their master.
" We write to you as to a timorous coward, to you,
Cambyses, whose name in our language is Sanouo,
which translated means Coward and Dastard. See, we
have expelled your ambassadors, for we do not fear
you; but we possess great praise, and we glorify our
Lord Pharaoh, he who rules in glory. We did not
desire to kill your ambassadors, but at the time of the
manifestation you will see what we shall do to you.
. . . First, we shall massacre the soldiers in whom you
trust ; we shall kill your sons before your eyes ; we shall
cast low your tyrants; your gods ^vho accompany you,
we shall burn by fire; and as for you, we shall not be
content with roasting your flesh, but we shall tear it
with our teeth like bears, like strong lions. Therefore,
oh wretched man ! consider, reflect, know what you had
best do, before punishment falls on you by the hands of
Egypt. Who, indeed, among tfie kings, not only of
the Assyrians but of all the earth, has ever withstood
or been able to prevail against Egypt, that you, oh
impious man I should prevail against her? The kings of
Gaul, or of the Hittites, or of the West, or of the icy
FRAGMENT OF A COPTIC NOVEL 173
[North, or of the Medes, do you not say of all those :
* They are valiant ' ? Why, then, have they not saved
their countries from Egypt when they laboured hard not
to become our slaves ? All those in whom you put your
trust will never be masters; they will always be slaves."
** When the messengers that Nebuchadnezzar-Cam-
>yses had sent returned, they told him all that had
lappened to them, and delivered the letter. Having
read it he grew troubled, and summoned his councillors
md spoke to them, saying : * What shall we do ? You
lave heard how those who are in the countries of the
[tising sun stand against me, saying : " We will not sub-
lit to you, because the power of Egypt is on our side."
pDo you desire us to begin by turning against them, and
JO to strike them with the edge of the sword that Egypt
jhall hear of it and become alarmed, and shall submit
lerself to me in peace and in terror I ' Now there were
jeven councillors, and one of them, and his word carried
weight, said to the king : * May the king live for ever !
risten to the counsel of your servant. Do not go against
lem, and do not be persuaded to attack them.' And
le suggested a trick which would disconcert Egypt, and
five her up to him disarmed. * Send messengers
throughout the length and breadth of Egypt, in the name
>f Pharaoh, their master, and in that of Apis, their god,
Inviting them with gracious words to a festival and a
royal panegyric, and to come free from anxiety and
nth an easy heart that thinks not of war. When they
ire assembled their master will see that another rule
has taken hold of them, he will be afraid, very much
afraid, and he will deliver his country into your hands.
If not, you will experience great trouble, as I have told
you. For who can stand against these giants, who can
fight with these bears? Who will undertake a combat
with these lions without counsel, without knowledge,
without skill, in order to become their lord?' And he
174 ^EW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
sang a superb hymn of praise to Egyptian prowess :
* The Egyptians are all warriors, and their wives know
how to cast stones with the sling, and they bear their
children to train them for war. First, when they are
little, they teach them to speak the truth, and at the same
time instruct them how to endure pain without flinching.
Then when they become stronger, they mount them on
spirited horses, and when they are skilled in horseman-
ship they are instructed in the use of arms; they take
possession of bow and lance, and dread no war, for they
are like the bee, against whom none can do anything
except by stratagem. So that you can do nothing
against Egypt except by cunning and wisdom. If you
succeed in assembling them together by your wisdom,
then you may raise your lances against them ; if you do
not succeed, you must not turn your face against them.*
The advice pleased Cambyses. He gave commands to
his messengers, and entrusted them with a letter
addressed to all the towns and villages, to all the nobles,
to all the fellaheen, to the rich and to the poor. He
invited them to come in peace to the festival of Apis,
that the god might reveal himself to them. ' Whoever
does not come will bring upon himself the malediction
and wrath of Apis ; but he who comes will receive bene-
diction, he, and his whole house.' " The Egyptians were
thoughtful on the receipt of this invitation. The more
they reflected on the adventure, the less they liked it;
they applied to their seers for a final decision on the
matter, and this time they did not belie their old reputa-
tion for sagacity. They divined that the author of the
proclamation was not Pharaoh-Apries, but Nebuchad-
nezzar-Cambyses, and the deceiver, deluded of his hope,
was obliged to undertake the war he so greatly dreaded.
What remains of the novel stops at the moment the
war begins, and it is a vast pity. It would have been
interesting to see how far it departed from the classical
FRAGMENT OF A COPTIC NOVEL 175
tradition. The author is an Egyptian. Only an
^Egyptian was capable of composing so well written an
julogy of the inhabitants of the valley as that which
lay be read in the oration of Cambyses's councillor,
'as the first composition in Egyptian or Greek?
fSchaefer has pointed out certain analogies with passages
[in John of Nikiou*s chronicle relating to the Persian
conquest, and it has been thought that that chronicle
^as translated from the Coptic into the Ethiopian. As
Far as can be judged from such brief fragments, I am
[inclined to believe that the original work was in Greek,
[and that it belonged to a relatively ancient epoch of
[Alexandrian literature. The way in which, under the
influence of the Biblical tradition, the Hellenic tradition
lis disfigured, recalls the manner in which the Alexan-
[drine Jews conceived the relations of Egypt with the
)eoples of Asia mentioned in the Hebrew books; it is
fa composition similar to those of which, thanks to the
[pamphlet of Josephus against Apion, we possess a few
extracts. It was translated into the Theban dialect, like
'the romance of Alexander of Macedon, and like many
other works now lost of which we find mention among
the Mussulmans. Its chief value for us is, that it is a
fragment, so far unique, of those Books of the Copts
repeatedly quoted by Arabian historians, the exist-
ence of which has been too easily doubted, and from
which the last of the fabulous histories of Egypt are
certainly derived.
XXIII
AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PROVINCIAL TOWN
For those who have made the classic pilgrimage of
the Nile, the name of Denderah recalls their first actual
sight of an Egyptian temple. A struggle with Cook's
donkey-drivers, who dispute as to which of them is to
take the tourist, twenty minutes' ride along a winding
road between fields of beans, wheat or Indian millet, and
then appears a triumphal door, almost level with the
ground, and immense women's heads supporting a
heavy cornice. The mass of ruins has so filled up the
temple that, in spite of successive excavations, it is neces-
sary to descend before setting foot on the ancient pave-
ment. Once there we suddenly find ourselves in a world
far removed from ours : we are in the midst of columns,
bas-reliefs, paintings, light or dark halls, crypts lost in
the thickness of the walls, staircases ascending to the
terrace near the chapels of Osiris and near the roof
of the hypostyle. Everything is so well preserved
that, turning down a corridor, we almost expect to
see one of the ancient worshippers forgotten of time.
If the old priests who sleep beneath the hill not far
distant could come to life again at the beginning of
some climacteric year, and by chance enter the sanc-
tuary they had so devotedly served, they would have
little to do to put it in due order, and to restore the
ceremonial of worship. A ceiling and a casing here
and there, a few slabs of sandstone on the floor, some
colour on the walls, some leaves of doors to the rooms,
and in a couple of months the temple would be
176
AN ANCIENT PROVINCIAL TOWN 177
jady to receive the emblems of the goddess, the white
)w of Hathor, or her golden timbrel. Indeed, if we
lay believe the inhabitants of the neighbouring village,
le cow is still alive. They saw her in the night wander-
[g over their fields, greedily deducting the tithe from
leir crops. She treats those who are content to admire
ier from a distance kindly, but she runs at and tramples
m those who approach her. She lodges in the chapel
jnown as the Chapel of the New Year, and watches over
le sacred treasure of which neither the Christians nor
le Mussulmans have been able to rob her. Hathor is
leither dead nor in exile : in her own house she patiently
^aits for the ancient divinities once again to take the
scendant over the modern gods.
Most travellers bring away a vivid impression, but
lisure to deepen it is usually wanting, and they hur-
|iedly catch train or boat without troubling to find out
there are other ancient monuments in the neighbour-
iood. They would not have to explore very far to dis-
>ver them, for, only a few hundred yards to the south,
'linders Petrie explored in 1898 a necropolis where
several princes of the city had been buried at a very
;mote epoch under the Pharaohs who built the
pyramids. ^ None of these personages had been famous
fmong his contemporaries, and the opening of their
)mbs has not enriched history with any unpublished
Jact; but the interest of the inscriptions and bas-reliefs
)und there is all the same very great. So far the
lances of excavation had taken us to the abodes of the
*haraohs themselves and of the persons of their court,
ito the most refined classes of society, and into the dis-
"icts where civilization was most widely spread. Our
knowledge of the industries, customs and arts came
entirely from the cemeteries of Gizeh or Sakkarah,
^ Flinders Petrie : Dendereh^ 1898 ; with chapters by F. LI. Griffith,
>r. Gladstone, and Olderfield Thomas. 1900.
178 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
where everything showed us Egypt at its best. Gradu-
ally, however, researches undertaken in the Said
brought to light a provincial art and civilization differing
in many points from the royal civilization at Kasr-es-
Sayad, El-Kab or Elephantine. The local magnates
may be seen at work under the peaceful sovereignty of
the ruler who lived far in the north near Memphis, and
we are struck with the awkwardness, sometimes even
with the actual barbarism of their monuments. The
lords of Elephantine, intrepid explorers, enriched by
the caravans they sent to the regions situated to the
west of the Nile or on the shores of the Red Sea,^ only
employed stone-cutters and daubers to decorate their
funerary chapels. They drew on them scenes similar to
those we find in the tombs of Sakkarah, and they could
scarcely be different, for they had the same ideas about
the life beyond the tomb as the Egyptians of the Delta.
They represented them, however, with so unskilful a
chisel, by figures so curiously deformed, that a date far
back in the beginnings of history would be attributed to
them, if the names of the masters they served did not
compel us to place them at least two centuries later than
the cheikh el beled of the Gizeh Museum, the Crouching
scribe of the Louvre, the Chephren, and other master-
pieces of archaic sculpture. The feudal art of Elephan-
tine was many generations behind the royal art of
Memphis.
The first princes of Denderah were almost con-
temporary with those of Elephantine, but as their monu-
ments testify, fortune did not favour them the more for
that. Their designers were less ignorant and their sculp-
tors did not lack some skill in their profession, proof of
which is to be found in the stelae or bas-reliefs discovered
by Petrie, photographs of which he has published. Pro-
vincialism is shown in even the best of them by the naive
' Cf. Chapter II.
5 ^
ft! S
a o
z «
:S -s
< 0^
AN ANCIENT PROVINCIAL TOWN 179
care with which the details of the hieroglyphics and the
figures are brought out. There is a conscientious stiff-
ness in the figures, a laborious application in the model-
ling, a detail in the execution of the costumes and
emblems, a stiffness in the cut of the letters, which prove
what an effort it was for these people to produce pictures
which the artists of Memphis turned out by dozens off-
hand. The profile of the human face is surrounded by
two stiff lines joined in an almost imperceptible angle
near the point of the nose, the mouth swells into two
lips equally thick from one side to the other, an almond
fye protrudes between two pads which oddly simulate
'^elashes. The slope of the shoulders is too round, the
Ibow is too pointed, the knee too knotted, the muscles
the leg too fantastic ; it is clear that an ambition to do
rell was not absent, but technique and feeling are not
a level with it. I speak of the pieces that are least
>ad, of those which belong to the great epoch of the
'Ith Dynasty; others are frankly horrible, those which
Petrie places, with good reason, I think, in the VI Ith
and VII Ith Dynasties. And yet the nobles who were
contented with such poor artists possessed wealth and
power, and if they gave them these tasks it was not from
ill-conceived economy; it was because no better artists
were forthcoming. Provincial studios insisted on follow-
ing the teaching they had received from their founders
in times already distant from the early Dynasties, and
worked on the old lines. When specimens of what was
being done elsewhere came their way they had instinct
enough to feel the superiority of the new school, but they
had not intelligence or skill enough to borrow its
methods and to apply them. Their works have a strong
resemblance to the early ones of the Theban school; it
seems that one tradition governed all that corner of the
valley; they were waiting to improve, and to reach
the perfection of the studios of Memphis, until events
i8o NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
brought the southern cities to a higher degree of political
activity and military power.
The deeper we penetrate into the inmost recesses of
Egypt the more the originality of the cities that com-
posed the double kingdom becomes manifest. It is not
so long since the greater number of students interested
in Egypt complained of the uniformity and monotony
that prevailed there : they found there kings identical one
w^ith the other in their hieratic majesty, a people of un-
changing character, always the same from the beginning
to the end of its existence, a political organization that
never progressed, a religion that never changed, a fixed
art and civilization into which no new element would be
introduced for ages. And now, with the continuous pro-
gress of research, that conception of immobility is being
effaced and is disappearing. The Pharaohs overturn,
poison, assassinate or persecute each other with ferocity
even after death, and their mummies, despoiled of their
wrappings, expose to view the wounds to which such a
one succumbed. The people ridicule their masters, rise
against them, sometimes go on strike, revealing them-
selves as one of the most violent and turbulent nations
of the ancient world. Gods, like men, underwent revolu-
tions; their dogmas were modified, were displaced, dis-
puted or banished, sometimes the stake was prepared for
heretics. The constitution of the land was transformed
from age to age, and with it social life and art. A period
of despotic monarchy followed a time of feudal anarchy,
and a great martial fief like Thebes ended in a pure
theocracy, first in the hands of the priests, and then in
those of the women. Art manifested itself in a number of
schools in the provinces, prospered at one point, declined
at another, was revived from century to century. The
monuments discovered by Petrie do not allow us to
reconstruct the whole history of Denderah ; but they in-
form us of what it was when the monarchy of Memphis
AN ANCIENT PROVINCIAL TOWN i8i
fell, and gradually yielded the chief place to that of
'hebes. Those who desire to study the monuments in
letail and to compare them with those of neighbouring
mronies that have reached us, would not find much
trouble in tracing a complete picture of life in the Said
From about the end of the fourth till about the beginning
)f the third millenary B.C. It would be an interesting
mdertaking, and would certainly surprise others than
:pert scholars.
XXIV
A NEW EGYPTIAN TALE
In Egypt magic was always one of the chief elements
of romantic literature ; about the Ptolemaic era it became
almost the unique element of interest, for without it no
tale was esteemed good. The Egyptians, forced to ac-
knowledge their political inferiority to the Greeks and
Romans, were proud of magic as the one superiority
that their masters could not refuse them. They had no
longer any generals or Pharaohs, but their sorcerers were
still feared, and that somewhat consoled them for their
fall. Their ancient magicians became objects of veri-
table worship, and the numerous writings which told of
their miracles were eagerly read. Two of them, a scribe,
Amenothes, son of Hapoui, who had been one of the
favourites of Amenothes III under the XVIIIth Dynasty,
and Khamois, son of Ramses II, who had acted as
regent for his father for more than twenty years, had
especially remained or again become dear to their
memory. Two novels are already known to us, of which
the latter is the hero. The oldest is in the Cairo Museum,
and was discovered by Brugsch; the other is now in the
British Museum. Griffith has just published them
both in facsimile, in transcription, and in an English
version.^ Of the first, generally called The Tale of
Satni, I shall say nothing; it has been so often trans-
lated during the last thirty years that its plot is familiar
* Stones of the High Priests of Memphis: the Sethon of Herodotus
and the Demotic Tales of Khamuas^ by F. LI. Griffith, M.A. 1900.
182
II
A NEW EGYPTIAN TALE 183
to students of Oriental literature.^ The second was un-
published before Mr. Griffith took it in hand, and lacunae
frequently interrupt the text, but they do not prevent
us from following the train of ideas. Its style is less
polished than that of the other ; the language is awkward,
and betrays the period of the decadence. Yet it pleases
by the strangeness of the situations and the originality
of the characters.^
The beginning represented the Princess Mehitouoskhit,
wife of Satni-Khamois, in great grief because she had
no children ; a dream revealed to her the means by which
her desire could be fulfilled, and another dream revealed
to her husband that the son she was to bear should be
named Si-Osiri, and that he would do many marvels.
In fact, the child, sent to school when he was four
years old, soon excelled his masters in knowledge of
magic. One day, when he attended a festival with his
father, they heard the voice of wailing, and perceived
the funeral procession of a rich man proceeding towards
the necropolis of Memphis, in all the glory of an
Egyptian burial. Another funeral came behind, that of
a poor man, whose mummy was wrapped in a mat, and
there were none walking after him. Satni, comparing
in his mind the two destinies which ended in such dif-
ferent ways, exclaimed: " How much better it shall be
in Hades for great men, accompanied with glory and
the voice of wailing, than for poor men, whom none
accompanies!" That was the old Egyptian idea, but
Si-Osiri, better instructed in the reality of things,
sternly replied to his father : '* May it be done unto you
in Hades as it shall be done unto this poor man, and
not as it shall be done unto this rich man !" And, in
order to prove the foolishness of his belief, Si-Osiri led
^1 It may be found in Maspero : Les Contes populaires de VAncienne
Egypte, 3rd edit, 1905.
2 The complete translation will be found in Maspero's Contes
populaires de VAncienne ^gypte^ 3rd edit., 1905.
i84 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
his father to Hades by a path unknown to all, and made
him traverse, one after the other, the six immense halls
in which the souls were shut up. At the entrance of the
fifth a man was lying on the ground, in such a position
that the pivot of the door was fixed in his right eye.
Osiris sat in the centre of the seventh hall, a diadem of
feathers on his head, Anubis on his left, Thot on his
right, the infernal council to the left and right of him.
The dread balance in which truth weighs human
actions was placed in front of him. Seated near the god
was a person of noble appearance ; he was the poor man
whose fate Satni had just deplored; his good deeds,
thrown into the scales, had outweighed his evil deeds.
But the evil deeds of the rich man had outweighed his
good deeds, and so divine justice had reversed their
conditions. The sumptuous belongings of the rich man
had been given to the poor man, and the rich man was
condemned to have his eye put out by the opening and
shutting of the door. After visiting the abode of the
Manes they returned to the light by a different road, and
Satni marvelled more than ever at the superhuman
powers of his son.
The boy was twelve years old when a stranger arrived
at the court, with much parade, with a message from
the King of Ethiopia to the Pharaoh Ousimares. He
carried a sealed letter on his body, and he challenged
them to read it on him without breaking the seal or
unfolding the sheet: ** If there is no scribe or learned
man capable of doing it I will take the humiliation of
Egypt to the land of the negroes, my country." Pharaoh
sent for Satni-Khamois, the most celebrated of his
magicians, and repeated to him the terms of the chal-
lenge. Satni was in despair, but, ashamed to confess
himself conquered before the battle, he asked for a
week's delay, in order to make his preparations. He
returned home stupefied, went to bed without taking the
A NEW EGYPTIAN TALE 185
trouble to undress, and the ministrations of his wife,
Mehitouoskhit, could not bring him out of his stupor.
In the end, however, he confided the cause of his distress
to Si-Osiri, who laughed in his face. Satni was
offended, but his son replied : " I laugh to see you lying
on the ground, your heart cast down, for such a piece of
nonsense. Arise, my father Satni, I will read the letter
from Ethiopia without opening it, and find what is
written upon it without breaking the seal." When
Satni heard these words he arose suddenly: ** What
proof will you give me that you are telling the truth, oh,
my son Si-Osiri ?" And Si-Osiri rejoined : " My father
Satni, go to the cellars of your house, and every scroll
|that you take from the case I will tell you what scroll it
is, from the place where I now am on the upper storey,
without having seen it." He did as he had promised, and
Satni, comforted, hastened to announce the good news
to the Pharaoh. On the morning of the day appointed
for the trial Ousimares solemnly assembled the great
men of the kingdom, summoned the messenger, and
jeonf routed him with Si-Osiri : *' Woe, thou wicked
Ethiopian!" exclaimed the child; "may Amon, your
fgod, smite you I You have come up to Egypt, the beau-
tiful pool of Osiris, the throne of Harmakhis, the beau-
tiful horizon of the good spirit, saying : ' I will take its
humiliation to the land of the negroes !' But I am going
to recite to you the words that Amon, your god, dictated
to you, the words written in the letter; do not attempt
to deny them before Pharaoh, your sovereign!" The
messenger touched the ground with his forehead, swore
not to prevaricate in anything, and then, in the presence
of the king and of all the people, Si-Osiri began to recite
iwhat was in the sealed letter.
The story which is grafted on to the first one is entirely
new, and seems at first to have nothing in common with
it. In the reign of Manakhphres Siamon, an Ethiopian
i86 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
sorcerer of great power, Horus, son of the negress, had
made a litter of wax with four runners. By means of
a magic formula he had endowed his puppets with life,
and had then enjoined them to go to Egypt, and bring
the Pharaoh to Meroe; there they gave him 500 blows
of the stick before the Viceroy of Ethiopia, and had then
brought him back to his palace, running all the way,
after only six hours' absence. The next morning Pha-
raoh, much afflicted, complained to the persons of his
court, exhibited his bruised back, and, when they had
sufficiently wondered at it, he commanded them to reveal
the cause. One of them, Horus, son of Panashi, a
scribe renowned among his contemporaries, stated the
cause without the slightest hesitation. " Sire," he said,
" these are the sorceries of the Ethiopians; by the breath
of thy nostrils I will arrange matters so that the wretches
shall soon go to the chamber of torture and execution."
"Very well," replied Siamon, "but make haste, and
take care that I do not spend another night in the land
of the negroes." Horus, son of Panashi, then armed
his master with a cuirass of amulets, entered the temple
of Hermopolis, and implored Thot to teach him how to
save Pharaoh from the sorceries. Thot appeared to
him in a dream, and indicated the place in which he
had hidden the most efficacious of his books of magic.
The litter and its runners, however, returned during the
king's sleep, but, repulsed by the power of the amulets,
they retraced their steps empty-hr.nded to him who had
breathed life into them. Horus, son of Panashi, en-
couraged by this result, determined to use Thot's book,
and, without delay, to play off on his adversaries the
same trick. He, too, modelled a litter and runners in
wax, sent them to the Viceroy o( Ethiopia, and, when
they had delivered him into his power, he thrashed him
soundly, giving him 500 blows of the stick, the same
number as Siamon had received. Horus, son of the
A NEW EGYPTIAN TALE 187
negress, guessed from this vigorous reply that his col-
league had entered into the campaign, but he felt too
weak to triumph over such a strong adversary. He had
recourse to his mother, the negress, who was more skilful
than he was, and he told her of his intention to go to
Egypt in disguise, and try and surprise Horus, son of
Panashi. He was unmasked immediately on his arrival,
and was about to succumb when his mother came to his
rescue in an air-ship; she was conquered in her turn, but
Horus, son of Panashi, was too generous, and spared
both their lives on condition that they would exile them-
selves from Egypt for 1,500 years. So far, Si-Osiri
had confined himself to take the messenger for witness
as to the veracity of his words. Suddenly he left off
reading, and, addressing Ousimares, said : " He who is
before you is Horus, son of the negress, the man whose
story I have read to you, and who returns to Egypt after
the fifteen centuries have passed, to try and humiliate you.
I am Horus, son of Panashi. Foreseeing that at this
time there would be no scribe in Egypt capable of resist-
ing him, I begged Osiris to let me come forth to the
world again; I have done so as the supposed son of
Satni-Khamois." By a last effort of magic he lighted
a brazier in the centre of the courtyard, and burned
Horus, son of the negress, in it, after which he
swooned, and was seen no more.
Such is the novel. If we desire to analyze it, it may
be easily divided into two distinct tales. The second,
which treats of the struggle of the two sorcerers, contains
the ordinary incidents of such combats in the Arabian
Nights: the abduction of the hero or heroine, and their
return to the place they were taken from in a few hours,
the statuettes animated by magic arts, the defeat of
Moghrebin, and the intervention of his mother, the de-
struction of the miscreant by fire, after which the good
genius disappears, or dies, exhausted by his victory.
i88 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
The first tale is a sort of new version of the parable of
Lazarus and of the wicked rich man, serving as a setting
to a sketch of heathen revelation. The episode of a
descent into Hades of a living person was old among
the Egyptians, and a story, too briefly told by Herodotus,
had already applied it to the fabulous Rhampsinitus.^
Griffith has confined himself to translating his manu-
script, without trying to distinguish the ideas that
form its woof. They are mostly of native growth, but
Graeco-Roman Egypt had been subjected to so many
foreign influences that the Egyptian appearance may, in
places, hide some foundation of foreign ideas. We may
perhaps find some day a residue of Hellenic or Jewish
ideas in the second tale of Satni-Khamois.
1 Herodotus, II, cxxii.
I
Amenothhs Son of Paapis, a Statue from Karnak in the Cairo Museum.
l83.
I
XXV
HOW AN EGYPTIAN STATESMAN BECAME A GOD
About the middle of the fifteenth century B.C., in the
reign of Thoutmosis III, a certain scribe of lowly birth,
who had settled in the city of Athribis in the Delta,
had a son named Amen6thes. We do not know by what
strokes of fortune the child emerged from the obscure
rank to which he belonged by birth, and gradually rose
to the highest places in the state; he only appears on
the monuments after he had become old, and was in
possession of Amen6th^s Ill's entire confidence. He
held the administration of justice and of the army in his
hands, and only the king and the members of the royal
family were greater than he. He reorganized the
finances, which had suffered from the neglect of the
ministers who preceded him. He restored order in
military affairs, increased the fleet, built temples, pre-
sided over the works of his master, and it was he, per-
haps, who erected the celebrated Colossi of Memnon at
Thebes. He advanced so high in favour that his master
authorized him to consecrate statues to himself in the
sanctuary of Amon, lord of Karnak. We possess four
of these, each representing him in different attitudes.
One that has just been brought to light by Legrain,
ranks as a masterpiece of Theban sculpture. It repre-
sents him with his face worn by age, and the inscription
informs us of the good opinion he had of himself. " I
came to thee," he said to Amon, ** to beseech thee in thy
temple, for thou art lord of what there is under heaven,
189
190 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
thou art the god of human beings : what there is in
heaven invokes thy magnificence, and thou hearest that
appeal, thou art the Sun-god incomparable. Thou
grantest to me to be among the elect who act in accord-
ance with the truth, and I am a just man, I commit no
sin. ... I do not take him who lives by his toil to
labour in the public works; when a man is summoned
before me, I listen to what he has to say, I do not yield,
I lend myself to no falsehood which would lead to
despoiling another of his property. It is my virtue that
justifies the honours bestowed on me, and which is clear
to the sight of all ; has any one ever been seen who
is supplicated as I am on account of the vastness of
the property that has come to me, which testifies that
I am just in my old age? I have attained the age of
eighty in the favour of the king, and I shall live to
be a hundred and ten I"
It is not known if he lived so long, and it is scarcely
probable, but posterity reserved privileges for him
superior even to those bestowed on him by his contem-
poraries. The statues of him seen in many places in
the temple, the panegyrical inscriptions on most of them,
accounts of him transmitted orally, all circumstances,
indeed, contributed to perpetuate his memory, not only
with the priests or the educated classes, but also with
the common people of Thebes. At that time magic
was one of the most respected of the sciences, and no
one was considered perfect if he did not combine the
reputation of a skilled sorcerer with his abilities as
statesman or administrator. One of the sons of Ramses
II, who filled the place of regent with distinction for more
than twenty years in the last half of his father's reign,
owed the fact that he was not forgotten almost im-
mediately after his death to his reputation as a sorcerer.
The magician Khamois saved the memory of the regent
Khamois, and kept it fresh until the first century of the
AN EGYPTIAN STATESMAN 191
Roman Empire. ^ Amenothes similarly escaped oblivion,
thanks to the fame he acquired through his talent as a
magician. Did he actually write books of magic? A
long magic writing is found in certain papyri, and the
copyists attribute its authorship to him. As a matter
of fact it is pure nonsense to us, but the Egyptians
thought it very fine and felt profound admiration for
the presumed author. It was not given to everybody
to find words which compelled gods to submit to the
human will, and it was said that the formulas of Amen-
6thes had never failed in their effect; the name of
Amenothes was, therefore, inscribed in the registers of
the temples by the side of those of Imouthes, of Didou-
fhor and of the magicians whom Hermes, the thrice
great, had most generally favoured with his inspirations.
He became the hero of a large number of legends, which
were passed from mouth to mouth, the greater number
of which are lost. One alone remains in two versions
to show us what the others were like.
Manetho, the national historian, inserted it in his
chronicles. He related that the Pharaoh Amenophis,
desiring to see the gods face to face, as his predecessor
Horos had done, applied to the most celebrated seer of
his day, Amenophis or Amenothes, son of Paapis. He
revealed to him that he would be happy and would make
Egypt happy if he delivered the land from the impure
strangers encamped there. Pharaoh assembled them to
the number of 80,000, first in the stone-pits of Tourah,
and then in the ruins of Avaris, which had been deserted
since the expulsion of the Shepherds. He thus drew
down unprecedented misfortunes on himself and his
kingdom. The seer had, in fact, dissimulated a portion
of the divine will* the Impure would summon the exiled
Shepherds to their aid, and together they would occupy
Egypt for thirteen years, at the end of which period
1 Cf. Chapter XXIV.
192 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
they would be conquered. Feeling that the accomplish-
ment of fate was imminent, he informed the sovereign
in writing, and killed himself. Things happened as he
had predicted. The Impure, allied with the Shepherds,
took possession of the whole of Egypt, and Pharaoh,
having taken refuge in Ethiopia, did not reconquer his
kingdom until thirteen years had passed. Manetho
confused this Egyptian tale with the Hebraic traditions,
and attached the adventures of Amenophis, son of
Paapis, to the narrative of the Exodus. A Greek
papyrus of the Ptolemaic epoch has preserved the pro-
phecy in a form nearer the Egyptian original. We read
there that Amenophis was a potter renowned for his
wisdom. One day a spirit from on high entered into
him and he uttered a long oration in which he predicted
all sorts of evils to Egypt, followed by a time of pros-
perity, the like of which had never been seen since the
time of Osiris and of Isis. The king, Amenophis, to
whom this was told, wished to hear it from the mouth of
the seer himself, who repeated the words, and then fell
down dead. It is the same plot as Manetho used but
freer, and unconnected with the history of the Hebrews.
The statues set up in the temples in honour of kings
DT individuals, according to Egyptian belief, were not
inanimate images solely commissioned to eternize the
features of this or that person. They were imperishable
bodies to which a soul, or at least a double, was attached.
When they were put into their place, the priest held a
service over them, by virtue of which a particle of the
life of the donor was infused into them, and never more
abandoned them. They were metamorphosed into pro-
phetic idols to whom recourse was had to learn the
future, and they were worshipped in a fashion that
brought them very near to the divine idols. Those
whose portraits they represented, if they did not become
immortals of high rank, at least left humanity to join
AN EGYPTIAN STATESMAN 193
the company of the gods. Amenothes, son of Paapis,
belonged in his lifetime to the class above the human,
and in the inscription I have translated he boasts of it
as a privilege accorded to none but himself. As the
centuries progressed, the honours which had been heaped
on him, far from falling into desuetude, as is often the
case with heroes of that sort, increased out of all pro-
portion. Did he really found the Chapel of Hathor, now
called Deir el Medineh ? It was so believed in the
Thebes of the Ptolemies, and he was associated with the
sacrifices made there to the goddess in concert with other
divinities. We do not know why he was associated at
the same epoch with the Theban Phtah ; but he was
installed in his temple and there foretold the future.
From this time, then, he was fully a god, and not one of
the least among those revered at Thebes. Like Amon,
like Khonsou, like Maout, he had two sanctuaries at his
disposal, one at Karnak in the town of the living where
his double and his living statues resided, the other in
the necropolis where his dead statue received the honours
due to the souls of the dead. It was to Karnak that
people went to consult his oracle. The priests, after
interrogating his image, replied for him, and the wonder-
ing believers did not omit to engrave some votive picture
or inscription in sign of gratitude on one of the non-
decorated outer walls. Like Amon, Amenothes, son
of Paapis, had his devotees in the ruined Thebes of
the last Ptolemies, and of the earliest Roman Emperors.
It is not a usual circumstance for a simple mortal, even
though he be a king's minister, to become a god. In
the whole of Egyptian antiquity we find only two or three
to whom it happened. The example of Amenothes,
however, is sufficient to prove that the Egyptians did
not believe it impossible for man to manufacture gods.
The case of the Pharaohs does not apply, for in their
eyes the Pharaohs were not actual men ; they were rather
13
194 ^E^V LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
gods incarnated in human bodies, the direct descendants
of Horus, Ra, or Amon; and when they died, by a
law of nature they returned to their primitive condition.
For an Amenothes, son of Paapis, or for any other
individual, not of the royal blood, things were very
different. In that case the subject to be made divine
was an actual man, in the birth of whom no divinity
had had even the smallest part.
Material for a divine soul had to be extracted from a
common soul, and the process is not easy to explain.
It was accomplished, however, and seemed to be con-
nected in a sufficiently direct manner with the ideas held
about the man and his after life on the one hand, and
those held about the gods and their nature on the other.
Man has no right to immortality, and the part of him
that survives, called soul or double, is only perpetuated
on condition of being continually nourished and
refreshed. Supported by the worship of posterity, it
can postpone infinitely the moment of annihilation. The
gods themselves, so to speak, are only sublimated men :
their substance is finer, their virtues stronger, their
sensations keener, and their existence more prolonged,
but they are subject to human infirmities, to disease, to
old age and to death. Amon was dead, Ra was dead,
Phtah was dead, Osiris was dead; but they had been
brought back to conscious life by the magical conjura-
tions of their children and their wives, and provided that
the usual liturgies were observed with regard to them,
there was no reason why they should not persist from
century to century. The difference, then, between
humanity and divinity was not a difference in essence
but of degree in essence, and there was nothing to pre-
vent the elements of humanity being sufficiently
strengthened to become identical with those of divinity.
It was known that men by means of formulas and
magic could command gods, and impose on them the
AN EGYPTIAN STATESMAN 195
domination of their creatures.^ Let us imagine the
double of one of those magicians transported into Hades,
and there preserving his skill. As he had done on earth,
he would compel the gods to obey him blindly, and, if
he so pleased, would declare his will to mortals with
an authority that could not be distinguished from that
of the gods. If posterity continued such abundant
offerings in his honour that his existence was as assured
that of the gods, there would be no distinction between
jim and them except that of birth, and in very truth
lortals would have fabricated a new immortal. That
what happened in the case of Amenothes, son of
^aapis. His magic gave him power over the gods, and
[lowed him to realize by their intervention all the
fbiiracles they worked themselves. The Pharaoh,
Amenothes HI, in erecting numerous statues to him in
the temple of Karnak, and in instituting worship of him,
guaranteed him the resources necessary to prevent his
annihilation after death. It was therefore given to him
to practise his prophetic and beneficent virtues long after
he had vanished from the earth. The votive offerings
lavished on him by the people increased his wealth, and
at the same time increased his powers and his chances
of immortality. He was prepared to become god by his
skill in magic, and by the consecration of his own
images; the piety of his devotees progressively com-
pleted the metamorphosis, and ended by making him
wholly a god.
» Cf. Chapter XIV.
XXVI I
EGYPTIAN FORMULAS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
In the Egyptian creed the beings we perceive around
us are only the smallest part of the inhabitants of the
universe. The earth, the waters, the mountains, the
woods, the air, are full of forces and persons, who,
although usually unfelt and unseen, are not less active
among us. The living mingle with them without know-
ing it, knock up against them, repel them, summon them,
sometimes to receive benefits from them, sometimes to
undergo their evil influence. Many of them are semi-
divinities, or genii, who have never lived in human form ;
others are disembodied souls, wandering douhleSy or dis-
contented shades, whose condition beyond the tomb has
not preserved any of the advantages they enjoyed in their
earthly existence, and whose poverty enrages them
against the present generations. They were angry that
those who now occupied their places should abandon
them, as they themselves had abandoned those who pre-
ceded them, and they sought to revenge themselves for
their negligence by attacking them without their know-
ledge. They prowled about the towns and the country
day and night, patiently seeking a victim, and, directly
they found him, took possession of him by one of the
means at their disposal. They beat him with their in-
visible hands, they made incisions in the chest, they
sucked his blood during his sleep, they slipped into him
through the ears, nose, or mouth. The greater part of
the physical ills commonly called diseases are their
work; they n^ust be forced to desist by exorcism, or by
J96
PROTECTION OF CHILDREN 197
charms, before administering the remedies that annul the
effects of their presence, or, better still, their assaults
must be prevented by the possession of amulets or form-
ulas which defy their fury. All human beings whose
natural weakness more particularly exposes them to their
malice, women with child, women after delivery, new-
born infants, needed to be specially protected, and it was
to provide such with weapons that an unknown scribe
wrote down the two collections of incantations of which
Erman has just published a translation.^
The text has one advantage over the greater number
of those we so far possess, in that it brings on the scene
the beings against whom the incantations are directed.
It shows us the ghosts in action, and we see them in
imagination as the Egyptian mothers or nurses described
them to children. " Avaunt,*' said one of them to the
spectre, ** ye dead man, who comes in the darkness, who
enters stealthily, with nose behind, face obverse, avaunt,
frustrated of what ye have come for I Avaunt, ye dead
woman, who comes in darkness, who enters stealthily,
nose behind, face obverse, avaunt, frustrated of what
ye have come for ! If ye are come to kiss this child,
I shall not allow you to kiss it ! If ye are come to
still its crying, I shall not allow you to still it I If
ye are come to injure it, I shall not allow you to injure
it ! If ye are come to take it away, I shall not allow
you to take it from me I I have made for it a charm
against you with the lettuce that pricks, with the garlic
which is harmful, with honey liked by the living, but
hated by the dead, with the bones of the mormyrus, with
a bundle of tow, with the backbone of a latus !" Nurses
and mothers must often have threatened their refractory
children with this horrible phantom, and we must never
have had a nurse, or never have heard similar tales
^ A. Erman, Zauberspriiche fur Mutter und Kind, aus dem Papyros
y:iTj des Berliner Museums. Berlin. 1901.
igS NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
when we were little, not to imagine the terror of the
unfortunate Egyptian babies who, waking up in the
middle of the night, thought they felt some mysterious
presence moving in the darkness. It was it; it came,
gliding noiselessly like a thief, turning aside its face,
rendered fleshless by the process of mummification, with
the snub nose flattened by the pressure of the wrappings,
so as not to betray itself just at first. It stretched its
cunning head out to kiss — the Egyptian text says to
smell — the unhappy infant, and to suck away its life,
or, if it cried, to rock it to the sleep that knows no
waking. Maybe, it would take hold of the child with its
dry hands, and bruise it, or carry it off to be devoured
at leisure in a tomb. The child would die from fright
in its bed if it had not confidence in the talisman
he wore at his neck, in which some good woman had
placed substances, plants, honey, fish-bones, abhorred
by evil spirits. We act in the same way in the country
districts of France, and if our ghosts possess wicked
instincts similar to those of the defunct Egyptians, they
are equally subject to the same natural antipathies of
which our sorcerers, like those of ancient times, make
use to baffle their wacked purposes.
It must be confessed, however, that, to the shame of
the Egyptian spectres, they did not confine themselves
to working their evil deeds during the night. Spectres of
modern times usually vanish or lose their power at cock-
crow, but the Egyptian species continued their evil prac-
tices in the full light of day. Egyptian theology wished
it to be so, for it assigned to the soul, as the height of
felicity, the faculty of leaving at will during the day the
darkness of the tomb; and the wicked soul enjoyed the
same privileges as the good and beneficent soul. There
was thus no truce in the war waged by the spectres
against mankind, and it was as necessary to be on the
defensive at midday as at midnight. Every morning
PROTECTION OF CHILDREN 199
anci every evening a formula was repeated over the child
which rendered it immune for the twelve hours of light
and the twelve hours of darkness. In the former it was
the sun, the watchful eye of the world, who was re-
quested to preside over the defence. ** Thou arisest, O
god Shou ; thou arisest, O god Ra ! If thou seest the
dead man coming against such a one, born of such a one,
or the dead woman, the woman harmful wherever she
is found, meditating some plot, do not permit her to
take the child in her arms." " My master Ra has
saved me," the mother then said; *' I will not give you,
my child, I will not give you to the thief from hell ; but
the hand drawn on the gem of this ring is a charm for
you, and I shall keep you !" In order that the exorcisms
should work, it was uttered over an amulet, afterwards
fastened round the child's neck. In this case it was the
gem of a ring on which a man's hand was engraved; it
was threaded on a cord and tied with one knot every
morning and one knot every evening, until there were
seven knots. In all the museums are scarabs, or
disks of hard stone on which an open hand may be
seen, the fingers stretched out and held close against
each other, but we did not know the meaning of the
emblem ; we know now that it protected little children
against ghosts of dead men and women who walk
at midday. The formula repeated in the evening in
tying the knot differed from the other only in a few
i words; instead of addressing the rising sun, the sun
which sets in the country of Life was invoked. ^ Like all
the customary daily prayers, it ended by becoming so
familiar to the Egyptians that they came to repeat it
without attaching precise meaning to each word. Pro-
vided that the sound remained the same, they troubled
1 " The Country of Life " was an euphemism for the West, the
region to which the dead repaired when they left their earthly
existence.
200 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
little to repeat the exact terms. Thus the text is very
corrupt, and Erman would not have been able wholly
to restore it had it not been transcribed four times follow-
ing in his manuscript. How many of our popular
formulas have become mere incomprehensible jargon by
the same process of deformation !
Some children were in greater danger than others, and
required a more careful protection if they were to be put
out of reach of harm. It is known what a horror the
population of many nomes had of men or animals of a
red colour. They cut their throats, or burned them, in
order to turn aside the wrath of the Osirian gods. Even
where the hatred was less violent they were considered
different from other individuals of the race; was not
Set-Typhon, the murderer of Osiris, red-haired ! If,
then, a child was born with red hair, or if he had a red-
haired mother, special precaution was taken to prevent
Typhon iseizing him as his property, or the spectres,
Typhon*s subjects, laying hand on his person. Then the
*' formula of the red-haired woman who had given birth
to a form '* had to be repeated. The scribe did not dare
to say **who had given birth to a child,^* for a Typho-
nian being might issue from a Typhonian mother, and
the new-born infant be only a form of the cursed one.
They also tried to procure him the support of the gods
hostile to those whose mark he bore, Isis and Nephthys,
the two sisters of Osiris. " Greeting to you, Isis has
twisted, Nephthys has smoothed the sacred thread with
the seven knots with which I protect thee, O healthy child
of such a one, so that you may be healthy and prosper-
ous, so that you may be in favour with all the gods and
all the goddesses, so that every foe, male or female, who
attacks you, may be defeated, so that the mouth of any
one who makes incantations against you may be closed,
as the lips of the seventy-seven asses which are at the
lake of Dasdes were sealed; I know them, I know their
PROTECTION OF CHILDREN 201
names, but he who 'does not know them, and who wishes
to injure this child, may he suffer by them, and that
swiftly." The amulet itself had to be made of seven
round porphyry beads, of seven gold beads, of seven
Sprigs of flax twisted by two sisters who are mothers, of
whom one rolled and the other smoothed. A charm of
seven knots must be made of the whole, over which the
prayer was repeated four times, and then it was tied
round the child's neck. The two Osirian goddesses were
summoned to the help of the Typhonian baby, and they
were represented at the time of the manufacture of the
amulet by two sisters, both mothers. They prepared for
the little mortal the same charm that had been invented
for the young Horus when he was pursued by Typhon,
and henceforth neither phantoms nor enchanters would
have any power over him. Not only were their lips
sealed like those of the seventy-seven asses, agents of the
evil spirit that the Sun conquered every day when he
traversed the lake of Dasdes where they dwelt; but if
they attempted in spite of all to injure the child, the asses
would turn against them and tear them to pieces. If
after that any accident happened to the child, magic
must be despaired of.
All the passages in the collection are not as clear as
those of which I have just given the text and a brief
commentary. Sometimes lacunas occur, which we can^
not fill up in a satisfactory fashion ; sometimes the ideas
and allusions are very obscure and puzzling. In many
cases the uncertainty which Erman has not been able to
avoid is due to the fact that for the explaining of the
text he has depended solely on the text itself ; he has not
sought the meaning in traditions or in foreign supersti-
tions. I think that in such matters comparison with
what has been elsewhere observed is the surest method of
arriving at a definitive explanation. All ancient peoples
conceived the relations between man and the invisible
202 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
world in almost the same way, and the conclusions they
deduced from their concepts have led to the same
practices. It is scarcely necessary to recall with what
tenacity they have been preserved down to our time.
Examples may still be found in many parts of France or
Germany, the equivalents of which are described in the
old books that come to us from Egypt or Chaldaea.
When the papyri contain formulas and rites that seem
incomprehensible, it is always worth while to see if the
study of modern superstitions would not help us out of
the difficulty; very often, here as elsewhere, the present
would complete the past, and allow us to interpret the
latter with certainty.
XXVII
CONCERNING A FRAGMENT OF OLD EGYPTIAN ANNALS
When for the first time we go over the interminable
list of semi-barbarous names with which the canon of
the Egyptian kings commences, the Menes, Athotis,
Mieba'is, Semempses, we ask ourselves what documents
the scribes who drew it up possessed, and if they did
not invent the beginnings of their national history. The
length of the reigns attributed to the early Pharaohs, and
the nature of the events supposed to have happened in
their time, confirm that impression. Menes was torn to
pieces by a hippopotamus, Athotis built the palace of
Memphis and wrote works on anatomy. There was a
famine under Ouenephes, a plague under Semempses,
and the Nile flowed with honey for eleven days under
Neferkeres, and Sesochris was of remarkable stature,
five cubits in height and three hands in breadth. There
is nothing there calculated to inspire confidence, and
we naturally say that the early Egyptian Dynasties have
decidedly little connection with authentic history.
The discoveries of these last years prove that we are
wrong to judge so. Not only did the old Pharaohs exist,
but they have left monuments, and it is in accordance
with the monuments that the most ancient annalists com-
piled the lists that the scribes of the epoch of the Ramses
and of the Greek epoch, Manetho like the rest, have
transmitted to us in so incomplete a fashion. According
to a custom that then prevailed in the East, in order to
distinguish the years of a sovereign one from the other,
they were marked by the mention of one of the principal
events which occurred in them. The nations on the
203
204 ^EW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
banks of the Euphrates dated official acts from the year
in which Boursin, the king, destroyed the town of Our-
billoum, or that in which Sinmouballit cleaned out and
enlarged the royal canal. Similarly we find in Egypt,
under the Pharaoh Boethos, a year of fighting and con-
quering the peoples of the Norths and under Semempses
a year of following the procession of Horus and his boat.
Such a method is not entirely unknown in our day. In
the lives of the peasants a hailstorm that damaged the
crops, a flood, the death of a horse or a cow, the fall of
a tree, become landmarks of which they make a sufficient
chronology for their family. Confusion would, however,
soon enter the memories of each generation, becoming
inextricable as time went on, if they had not carefully
classified the appellations given to the years during the
reigns. Both the Egyptian and Chaldaean scribes were
accustomed to keep registers in which they were collected,
and inscribed them in the same order as they occurred.
The registers, deposited in the libraries of temples and
palaces, in time constituted real annals in which with a
little attention we could learn not only the names of the
Pharaohs and their successors, but the number of years
and even of the months and days they had been on the
throne, with a summary indication of a portion of the
events that had happened in their time. They were
copied on papyrus, stone or brick, and notwithstanding
errors and lacunae in the oldest parts, we must admit that
they offer valuable aid to students endeavouring to recon-
struct the far-off past of Egypt or Chaldsea.
Only one of those which existed in Egypt has come
down to us, and it is in a wretched state of preservation.
It is a fragment of black granite, which strayed to Sicily
no one knows how or at what period, and is now in the
Palermo Museum. Its inscriptions were published in
1896 by Pellegrini, the Italian Egyptologist, and at once
roused general curiosity. The nature of the document
One of the Faces of the Palermo Stone, a Fragment of Egyptian Annals.
Tge 204
OLD EGYPTIAN ANNALS 205
it bore was not defined, however, until 1901 ; ^ quite
recently Schaefer has made a complete translation, which
makes it accessible not only to expert Egyptologists,
but to historians of antiquity .2 The beginning and the
end have disappeared, and no existing line is complete.
There are at first a series of very short groups, ranged
one after another in juxtaposed rectangles. They are not
the birth names of the Pharaohs, but the names given
them on enthronement, their double namesy like those
found some years ago at Sakkarah and near Abydos, a
canon of the sovereigns special perhaps to Lower Egypt. ^
It seems that only the forenames of those survived, and
that nothing was known of them except that they had
lived. They are followed by other personages, about
whom there are definite facts, mention of years, indica-
tion of their mother, the height attained by the Nile at
each of its inundations. Even if the monument were less
damaged should we actually have the sum total of the
years of their reigns? It is very doubtful, and if only
fortune favours us in our excavations, we shall bring to
light inscriptions which will oblige us to enlarge the
list. The same barrenness is to be found in the lines in
which the princes of the Ilird Dynasty are enumerated,
but when we reach the IVth the information becomes
fuller. Unfortunately it is half destroyed, and we only
have a small portion of what concerned the first and last
prince of the family : the builders of the three great
pyramids, Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus are lost
in the lacunae. The Pharaohs who form the first half of
1 Maspero, in the Revue Critique^ 1901, Vol. li, p. 384.
2 H. Schaefer : " Ein Bruchstiick altsegyptischer Annalen," taken
from the Memoirs of the Berlin Acade?ny of Sciences, 1902.
^ The determinatives that accompany these names represent the
king wearing the crown of Lower Egypt. I have said elsewhere
that that was not a sufficient reason. The names inscribed on the
Tables of Abydos are all determined by the image of the king wearing
the crown of Upper Egypt; no one has concluded that they were
kings of Upper Egypt only, and, in fact, they reigned over both Egypts
united together.
2o6 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the Vth Dynasty have met with better fortune; if the
whole tale of their years is not preserved, the information
about those of which the text is intact is so full that their
deeds live again before our eyes.
And what are the incidents which the chronicler has
chosen to register? First he records the chief episodes
in the sovereign's life. His first year, that of his acces-
sion, derived its name from the ceremonies usual on such
an occasion, and was called the year of his rising to he
king of Upper and Lower Egypt. The monarch bound
together the two lotus stems which represent the two
halves of the kingdom, and four times in succession he
ran round the temple which sheltered the god from
w^hom he was deemed to hold his crown. Other years
derive their titles from festivals that he had to celebrate
periodically, the procession in which the boat of Horus,
the Shomsou Horou, represented the course of the bull
Apis, the anniversary of the massacre of the tribes of the
Libyan desert, the Anou, at the time of the Osirian wars.
Some years commemorate the foundation of a temple
or of a funerary chapel, or of some religious ceremony,
the institution of the sacrifice, and the donation of a
fief to one of the gods. Elsewhere maritime expeditions
or wars are mentioned. We learn thus that in the last
years of his life Sahouri imported large quantities of
myrrh, gold, and rare woods from the land of Pouanit,
or that the king Sanofroui defeated the negroes and
brought back 7,000 prisoners from the campaign,
4,000 men and 3,000 women, with 20,000 head of
cattle, and so forth. Fiscal operations are not forgotten
in these lists, and they supplied significant names :
Years of the statistical return of oxen, or Years of the
statistical return of cattle and of goldy or again. Years
of the statistical return of gold and of the fields. It
is known that the Egyptian administration, from the
very earliest times, was carried on by well-adjusted and
complicated machinery. Egyptologists are surprised to
OLD EGYPTIAN ANNALS 207
^w recur at fixed intervals. The Palermo Stone shows that
^Bunder the Pharaohs of the Illrd Dynasty they were
^Hmade every two years. One year is celebrated because
^V two towns were founded or colonized ; another because
^ statues were erected to the gods or to deified kings. In
short, if fortune gave us a perfect exemplar of one of
these records we should find in it not only the complete
history of Archaic Egypt, but also the most important
part of that history for its contemporaries.
Schaefer thinks that the Palermo Stone dates from the
Vth Dynasty, and I believe he is right. The composition
of the document, fragments of which it gives us, must
be placed at the beginning of the fourth millenary B.C.
Egypt had her ancient history at the time when her
kings were building the Pyramids, and was arranging
her records and placing them in their proper setting.
No one will dispute that legend played a part therein,
but it must also be admitted that, taking it altogether,
the sources whence they are derived are excellent;
they were partly of the kind that were dug out of the
earth a few years ago, and they deserve the same
favour. How-ever, the annals of the Palermo Stone
are certainly not the first that were written, and if we
study them carefully we seem to discover traces of
more than one hand. I am ready to recognize at least
two distinct documents in it, one of which was composed
k under the IVth Dynasty, and the other, comprising the
first, if not in its entirety, at least in its essential elements,
would be of the middle or end of the Vth Dynasty.
Those are questions for thorough examination and dis-
cussion by experts. What may be stated here is that
the chroniclers were not reduced to dip into their imagin-
ations to reconstruct the annals of the early Dynasties.
They possessed properly classified lists of authentic facts,
thanks to which they could accurately relate the great
deeds of their oldest kings.
XXVIII
MUMMIES OF ANIMALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT
It would be a very difficult matter to explain why the
Egyptians mummified their corpses; but when once
done, they were so pleased with the result that they pur-
sued the practice with everything that afTorded material.
They mummified their domestic animals, their oxen,
their dogs, their cats, their gazelles, birds of the poultry-
yard, birds of prey, sparrow-hawks by twenties, ibises
by the hundred, innumerable eagles, countless vultures,
without mentioning birds of less pretension; then they
came down to fish, serpents, lizards, even insects, the
grasshopper as well as the beetle. And, like men, these
creatures had their cemeteries in which they lay properly
buried side by side, the cats at Stabl-Antar and at
Bubastis, the dogs at Siout, the fish at Esneh, the
gazelles and sparrow-hawks at Kom-Ombo, the monkeys
at Thebes and at Tounah, the ibises near Abydos, the
oxen in most places, but by preference at Sakkarah and
Thebes. Some are put straight into the sand without
other accoutrements than the bare wrappings; others in
long narrow rush baskets; some are subtly hidden at
the bottom of painted earthen pots; others again have
a complete funerary equipment, stone sarcophagi, beau-
tifully decorated wooden coffins, pasteboard boxes,
jewels, amulets, statuettes destined to perform the corvees
of the other world in their stead. Like men, Egyptian
animals had their ranks, from the vulgar herd of prole-
tariat cats and dogs to the aristocracy of the hermetical
208
The Mummy of a Hawk in its Coffin.
\
MUMMIES OF ANIMALS 209
ibises and the bulls of Apis, who were gods already in
their lifetime, and who became gods in a much higher
degree after their death. The common grave was good
enough for the vulgar herd; the Apis of Memphis, the
Mnevis of Heliopolis, the Bacchis of Erment, the ram of
Mendes required a tomb or a chamber each, and their
funerals sometimes rivalled in magnificence those of
the Pharaohs.
In recent times their mummies have been carefully
sought, most often for the sake of the chemical manure
to be derived from them, and hundreds of thousands
have been exported to Europe. Some of their ceme-
teries are now empty, and I found it difficult to procure
twenty intact examples when Dr. Lortet wanted some to
study scientifically, and determine the species.^ He
was interesting himself in a counter proof of the Dar-
winian law. If changes in the morphology and inner
structure of living organisms correspond with changes
in the climatic conditions of their native places, it is
indubitably proved that in districts where the climate
has undergone no change for many thousands of years,
vertebrates have always remained the same. From a
very remote epoch, between the oolitic and the cretace-
ous period, when the waters of Central Africa began to
flow towards the Mediterranean, the climate of Egypt
does not appear to have undergone any sensible change.
Even without going back to the geological ages, from
the time when the Egyptians began to build, it is evident
:rom the scenes of familiar life engraved on the monu-
|ments that the valley presented the same conditions of
ilimate then as now. Do the bas-reliefs and the corpses
ifFord us means of discovering if any modification has
)ccurred in the organism of the ancient vertebrates which
1 Lortet and Gaillard: "La Faune Momifi^e de I'Ancienne ^gypte,"
|First Series, 1903. (Extract from Vol. viii of the Archives of the
latural History Museum at Lyons.)
14
210 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
distinguishes them from their fellows of modern times?
The reply of the documents is what it must be; the
species of modern Egypt are identical with those of
Pharaonic Egypt, at least those whose bones or mum-
mies are found in the old cemeteries. The difference
between the fauna of to-day and that of the past is not
morphological but historical. Many new kinds were
introduced into the country after the Arab conquest,
while many others became rare or disappeared; those
that have persisted through everything have not
changed.
Two or three points of great importance for general
history have resulted from the analyses of Lortet and
his collaborator, Gail lard. The Egyptian bas-reliefs
show us the existence of two bovine species, one of
which has short and the other long horns; the latter is
the only species of which there are mummies in the ceme-
teries; Apis and Mnevis, and the sacred bulls of Mem-
phis and Heliopolis belong to it. Now, this long-horned
race, which appears on the monuments and which is
beginning to be disinterred from the dust of the hypo-
geums, is declared by Lortet and Gaillard to be none
other than the African zebu, the Bos AfricanuSy large
herds of which freely roam the plains of the Upper Nile.
There are no reasons for believing that it is of Asiatic
origin, nor that it came from India in the train of some
emigrant tribe in prehistoric times. It must have had
its origin in the central parts of Africa, and then, per-
haps, with the races of men whence the Egyptians
descend, have come down along the valley to the portion
of it that formed historic Egypt, just like the hippo-
potamus and the crocodile, which are regarded by all as
African species. In that environment of fixed stability
it acquired special characteristics in perfect accord with
the conditions and climate, and it kept them such as they
are so long as fortuitous circumstances did not com-
♦*./
MUMMIES OF ANIMALS 211
promise its reproduction. After the Arab conquest
frequent murrains destroyed it, and a short-horned race
was imported from Syria; it is only in our day, and in
order to repair the damage done to the new race by other
murrains, that expert Egyptian agriculturists have
brought individuals of the old race still to be found in
the Soudan to the Said and the Delta. The two species
of sheep represented on the monuments, and of which
the cemeteries restore the skeletons to us, have a similar
history; they are purely African in origin and analogies.
The more intimate our knowledge of the past becomes,
the more the hypothesis that the races of men and of
animals that peopled Egypt are of an Asiatic origin must
be abandoned; we come to find both men and animals
more and more African.
In the course of his studies of these mummies Lortet
has discovered details which will surprise and amuse
Egyptologists. One mummy, which comes from Abousir,
seemed to be the remains of a superb bull, nearly seven
feet long and more than three feet broad. The wrap-
pings were of fine linen tied with cords of palm-fibre and
narrow list ; it had a brownish coating, which is only dry
natron, a magnificently horned head standing out from
the whole. When unrolled, the animal changed, or
rather became decomposed, into many animals. It
was artificial, and made up of a large number of odd
pieces tied together; there were the remains of seven
.males, some very old, and among them four skulls with
toothless jaws, and atrophied by the action of time. A
jecond mummy of similar origin comprised the remains
>f five animals, among them a calf hardly two and a half
[years old, and an old ox of gigantic size. A third had
Itwo heads, and most of those containing a whole animal
fhad also the residue of several other skeletons. To
explain this curious collection of waste material, Lortet
rery appropriately remembered the curious passage in
212 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
which Herodotus relates how the fellaheen of his time
threw their cows when they died into the Nile, but buried
the bulls in the suburbs of their villages, letting one or
two horns stick out to mark the presence of the corpses.
After a certain time had elapsed and putrefaction had
done its work, a boat arrived which took the bones to
the island of Prosopitis to bury them in a fixed place.
This narrative explains why the tombs of Abousir yield
so many incomplete animals. The priests of Memphis
acted like those of Prosopitis, but when the collectors
reached the end of their voyage what they delivered to
the embalmers was only a cargo of fleshless carcases,
parts of which had probably been left in their first bury-
ing-ground, and the rest had fallen to pieces in the acci-
dents of travel. The whole was divided into several lots,
out of which was formed the same number of mummies,
apparently perfect but in reality only a collection of
relics ; they were careful to choose for the head the best-
shaped skull and that adorned with the finest horns.
A fine mummy from Abousir, arranged in the form of a
she-goat, only concealed a few fragments of a he-goat,
the Hircus mamhricus, lost in a profusion of bones,
limbs, vertebrae, and bony dermal scales of a large
crocodile ; it had all been plentifully covered with tar so
that the fragments adhered together.
Quadrupeds, birds, fishes abound in oddities which
still await explanation ; many details concerning human
mummies are still obscure, and the study of them has
been going on for many years, while the examination
of the mummies of animals almost begins with Lortet
and his collaborators. We must not, then, be surprised
if the principle of the practice is as yet uncertain, and
if we can only put forth conjectures as to the motives
that urged the Egyptians to embalm certain kinds of
animals. First, we should note that the custom did not
spread until late, probably about the time of the Persian
I
MUMMIES OF ANIMALS 213
conquest. Until then mummification was an honour
reserved for a few individuals in each species possessing
a supernatural character. It was not for all bulls, but
only for those on whom marks betraying divinity were
discerned, and who had been enthroned with ceremony
as being the god himself, the Apis of Memphis, the
Mnevis of Heliopolis, the Bacchis of Erment. Their
corpses were preserved not exactly as bulls, but rather
as gods incarnated in a bull. A god, like men, was
composed of a body and of a double or soul, what-
ever might be the conception that was held of the
soul. The god, once dead to the earthly life, would not
have participated in the joys of the life beyond had
he not been treated in the same way as men, and as gods
in human shape; in order that the soul and the double
should not be annihilated, the casing in which they had
existed in the world must not be allowed to perish. The
mummy of the sacred ox was the necessary support of
the god who had inhabited it, and the rites of em-
balmment were the needful preliminaries of immortality.
Apis, Mnevis, Bacchis, prepared with the prescribed
ceremonies, were identified with Osiris, and passed into
the condition of Osiris-Apis, Osiris-Mnevis, Osiris-
Bacchis. It was the same with others, and the goose of
Amon, the fish of Hathor, the ibis of Thot, the cat of
Bastit, had as a principle no other reason for their mum-
mification, except that they had provided Amon, Hathor,
Thot, and Bastit with the form in which those divinities
had walked the earth among their faithful believers.
That was the beginning of the custom, and there it
seems to have remained for a long time. But in the
course of the ages, the veneration given to the individual
creature chosen by the god to incorporate one of his
doubles extended to all his fellows, and the people of
Bubastis instead of worshipping the few cats which
represented the goddess in the temple of the town,
214 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
honoured all cats; the god of the nome ceased to be a
special cat and became the cat species in general. A
similar evolution taking place in other quarters, holiness
and its privileges gradually invested all the bulls in the
nomes which had worshipped a bull, all the ibises in the
nomes which had worshipped an ibis, all the falcons, all
the monkeys, all the serpents, all the fishes, all the
gazelles, all the geese in the nomes where a falcon, a
monkey, a serpent, a fish, a gazelle, a particular goose
was worshipped. Painful conflicts resulted between cus-
tom and faith when the chief utility of the race was its
suitability for food. If all oxen were more or less imbued
with divinity, could they still be eaten ? Certain nomes
resigned themselves to total abstinence, and those Egyp-
tians who sent their oxen to the slaughter-house were
regarded as impure. It was in those cases that the pious
acted as Herodotus described, and gathered the bones
from everywhere in order to give them a burial suited to
divine dignity. Cemeteries for animals were instituted,
and increased at the time when Egypt, gradually
degenerating by contact with Western civilizations, by
'Reaction against them, exaggerated the tendencies of its
own civilization, and passed from the worship of a few
animals to that of the whole species. I regard it as a
relatively late development of an ancient doctrine, but
my opinion is open to doubt. Lortet has not finished
his researches, and the book before us is only the begin-
ning of an important work ; perhaps the material he col-
lects will provide us with the means of verifying the
hypothesis and changing it into a fact.
XXIX
THE FORTUNE OF AN EGYPTIAN GOD THREE THOUSAND
YEARS AGO
When King Ramses III was tired of power he
philosophically resolved to profit by the old age that had
come upon him, and in the thirty-second year of his reign
associated with himself on the throne his eldest son,
named Ramses like himself. He crowned him with due
ceremony before the assembled army, nobility and clergy
in the temple of Amon at Thebes. When the new
sovereign had been presented to his people, public and
private life continued the even tenor of their ways.
Ramses IV ruled, Ramses III assisted him with advice,
but otherwise reposed from the cares of office. Find-
ing himself with leisure, a circumstance that probably
had not happened since the distant day when his father
Setnakhiti had entrusted the regency to him, he used it
to dictate to his scribes a sort of political testament
destined to give the best idea of himself to future genera-
tions. As if by a miracle, one of the official copies of
this veracious act has escaped destruction, and after
remaining in the hands of a certain Harris, English
Consul at Alexandria, for more than a quarter of a
century, it was purchased, printed in facsimile, published
and translated, by the directors of the British Museum.
It ends with a brief narrative of the exploits of Ramses
III ; it also contains lengthy lists and magnificent descrip-
tions of the things given by the sovereign to the gods.
It is he who makes use of the term ''given," and we
can believe it if we please, but as a matter of fact these
215
2i6 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
alleged gifts were, in many cases, simple confirmation of
donations made by his predecessors of the XVIIIth
and XlXth Dynasties. However that may be, we have
an authentic statement of the wealth of the clergy in the
thirty-second year of Ramses III; the document is
unique in its kind up to the present time.
The terms are sometimes a little vague, and we must
not expect to find the detailed statistics contained in the
Polyptic of Irminon, for example; precision in detail
was scarcely the strong point of a Pharaoh when com-
posing panegyrics. Besides, if the authors had desired
to include the dimensions of each domain, with the
names of the farmers, tenants, husbandmen, slaves who
worked on it, a whole library, not a single papyrus roll,
would have been required. They state what belongs to
the gods of the three chief cities, Thebes, Heliopolis and
Memphis, then to those of the lesser towns, men,
gardens, corn-lands, cattle, boats, market-towns and
villages. Although indicated generally and in lump
sums, the information furnished by the Harris papyrus
enables us to imagine quite well the extent and nature
of the sacerdotal wealth. It would be too long and
tedious a business to transcribe the portions which apply
to each sanctuary; it will be sufficient to extract what
concerns Amon of Thebes, the most honoured and most
wealthy of the gods of Egypt. He possessed 5,164
divine statues; 81,322 vassals, servants and slaves;
421,262 head of cattle, large and small; 433 gardens and
orchards; about 60,000 acres of corn-land; 83 ships;
46 building yards; 65 cities, market-towns and villages,
seven of which were in Asia. And that was not all ;
during the thirty-two years of his reign he had received
as votive gifts or offerings vast quantities of gold,
silver and copper; 3,722 pieces of material, tens of
thousands of bushels of corn; 289,530 birds, besides
large quantities of thread, flax, oil, wine and incense.
FORTUNE OF AN EGYPTIAN GOD 217
These things represent tributes or dues over and above
the ordinary revenue from the landed estate. Amon
was then a very great personage, the greatest in Egypt
after the king. He dominated at least a tenth, perhaps
an eighth of the valley, and, like all mortmains, mani-
fested a tendency to increase rather than to diminish.
Most modern historians, remembering that a hundred
or a hundred and fifty years after this Ramses, the
High Priest of Amon proclaimed himself king, con-
cluded that the revolution which substituted a theocracy
for the military authority of the Ramses, was favoured,
if not wholly brought about, by the enrichment of the
priesthood to the detriment of the dynasty. Their idea
has lately been disputed by Erman.^ He does not con-
sider the figures of the Harris papyrus as convincing as
they seemed to his predecessors. According to him,
even if we strain the calculation, Amon*s domain would
not occupy more than a sixth, at most, of the territory of
Egypt proper, not more, probably, than a tenth ; would
that be likely to destroy Pharaoh's power ? It would be
the' same with the vassal population ; reckon it as high
as you like, it would not at most attain a hundredth part
of the total population of Egypt. The dues spread over
thirty-two years would leave only a very small amount
for each. In short, Amon was certainly very wealthy,
but not sufficiently so to overshadow the authority of the
sovereigns. If the Ramses disappeared, and yielded
their place to the priesthood, their fall should not be
ascribed solely to the power that the wealth of the god
gave their adversaries ; other factors intervened. Erman
came to the conclusion that the plan on which the history
of that epoch has been written, ought to undergo much
modification, and although the concise manner in which
^ A. Erman : " Zur Erklaerung des Papyrus Harris." Extract from
the Sitzungsbericht of the Berlin Academy, 1903, No. Ixxxi, pp. 456-
474.
2i8 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
he conducts the discussion lends a great weight to his
opinion, I doubt if it would be wise to admit it without
reserve. I do not know if others have regarded the
enrichment of Amon as the unique determining cause of
the ruin of the Ramses; for my part I have for a long
time shown other reasons, equally cogent, which caused
the direct line of the great Ramses to be replaced by
a family of pontiff sovereigns. It would be a great
undertaking to set them forth in full, but it is quite easy
to note them briefly.
First, the Harris papyrus only shows the apanage of
the god about the end of the reign of Ramses III, at
a time when the treasury of the Pharaohs was regularly
fed by tribute from Syria. In the course of the following
century the kings gradually abandoned those distant
provinces, and their treasuries became impoverished;
Egypt alone had to supply resources which had formerly
been derived partly from Egypt and partly from foreign
lands. During that period Amon's treasury did not
suffer in the same proportion as the royal treasury; it
lost the revenue of a few Syrian towns, but that was no
great matter in his affairs taken as a whole, and as,
on the other hand, he received donations from Egyptian
territory at each new reign, we shall probably be under-
estimating rather than overestimating the facts, if we
suppose that, so far as he was concerned, the gains com-
pensated for the losses. If he merely remained station-
ary, while royalty fell back and lost power, the priest-
hood would grow in power, or rather, the difference
between his wealth and that of Pharaoh being lessened,
his influence would have greater weight in the destinies
of the country. The priesthood was thus encouraged to
demand the inheritance in favour of its supreme head.
Until then, in fact, the high priest had been chosen and
nominated by the king; from the time of Ramses III he
was always chosen in the same family, and the son sue-
FORTUNE OF AN EGYPTIAN GOD 219
ceeded his father on the pontifical throne. From that time
events marched quickly. The Theban mortmain was
doubled with a veritable seignorial fief, which his masters
increased by marriages with the heirs of neighbouring
fiefs, by continual bequests from one branch of the
family to the other, by the placing of cadets of each
generation at the head of the clergy of certain secondary
towns. The official protocol of the offices filled by their
wives shows that a century or a century and a half after
Ramses III, almost the whole of the Thebaid, about the
third of the Egyptian territory, was in the hands of
the High Priest of Amon and of his family. He ruled
the larger number of the towns and nomes, from
Assouan to Siout and beyond, under the king, and those
which did not come directly under his power were
dependent on him by virtue of the functions he fulfilled
at court. He commanded the armies, administered the
finances, governed the southern countries and was Vice-
roy of Ethiopia. His authority was at that time set on
sufficiently complex foundations. It resulted in some
slight degree from the civil and military offices with
which he was invested. It rested on the large number
of fiefs of which he was hereditary lord, and which
represented the apanage of his family. It rested lastly
on the revenues and lands which formed the patrimony
proper of Amonra.
We have no means of knowing the proportions
assumed by each of those elements of his influence, nor
if his family possessions were larger than the mortmain
of the god; together they procured him a situation that
caused the Ramses to succumb before him. The day
he ascended the throne he was already the owner of
the valley from the confluence of the Blue Nile to the
environs of Siout; further north his property was too
|thinly scattered for him to have the upper hand, and a
[family rose up at Tanis which, supported by the popu-
220 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
lous cities of the Delta, compelled the Thebans to take an
oath of vassalage to it. Egypt was thenceforth divided
into two unequal parts, of which the southern formed
a principality ruled nominally by Amon, but actually
by the descendants of his prophets. If the wealth of
the god was not the unique cause, it was at least the
chief instrument : without the resources it afforded to
the high priests they would not have succeeded so
quickly in claiming the inheritance, then in acquiring the
personal property which, added to the divine property,
soon gave them superiority over the Pharaohs. The
Harris papyrus is a valuable document of ancient Egypt.
It gives a detailed inventory of Amon's possessions at
the critical period of his career, and so enables us to
calculate with sufficient likelihood the power possessed
by his representatives, and to bring to light one of
the means used by them to turn the military fief of
Thebes into a theocratic principality.
XXX
THE PALACE OF AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH AT THEBES
We know in detail the habitations of the Egyptian
gods and how they lived in them ; gigantic, innumerable
temples are there to tell us, some so well preserved
in the essential parts that one or two days' work would
almost suffice to prepare them for the services, others
dismantled or in ruins, yet not so much so that we
cannot with a little trouble restore the plan. The gods,
indeed, exacted everlasting dwellings^ and the Pharaohs,
solicitous to please them, bestowed on them the most
durable material, limestone, sandstone, granite, alabas-
ter; they reserved wood and dry bricks for themselves,
and for twenty temples that have been preserved, we
count hardly two or three royal palaces, for they are so
[seriously damaged that their plan is not very clear.
One of them, a little less of a fragment than the others,
is in course of being excavated at Thebes, on the left
(bank of the river, at the south of Medinet-Habou. It
was explored for the first time in the winter of 1888-9
by Gr^baut, then from 1900 the methodical clearing
|out was undertaken by an Englishman, Mr. Newbury,
at the expense of R. de P. Tytus, an American. Now,
after three years, many of the buildings of which
it consisted have been dug out and its plan can be
clearly distinguished.^ The few tourists whom curiosity
takes there can study at their ease the favourite
^ "A preliminary report on the re-excavation of the palace of
Amenhetep III," by Robb de Peyser Tytus. 1903.
221
222 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
residence of Amenothes III, one of the most illustrious
sovereigns of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and they can freely
walk through the most private apartments, even those in
which the queen shut herself up with the ladies of her
suite.
The buildings rose from alluvial earth covered by
sand, but which was then well watered, and allowed the
laying out of beautiful gardens on the edge of the desert.
Towards the east could be seen the steep slopes and the
peaked mountains of Libya, towards the west and south
the fields and groves of the Theban plain; towards the
north Amenothes III saw the masonry of the funerary
temple he was building, and above the line of the cornices
the heads of the two colossi erected by his minister,
Amenothes, son of Hapoui, to his glory.^ The chapels
of his predecessors retreated one behind the other to the
entrance of the valley which leads to the tombs of the
kings, and beyond the Nile, its feet bathed in the eddies
of the stream, the Thebes of the living extended as far
as the eye could reach ; Louxor and its sanctuary faintly
outlined, Ashirou with its high grey ramparts, Karnak
with its silhouette indented with obelisks, closed the
horizon. The Pharaoh watched over the turbulent city
to which he was sufficiently near to reach it in an hour
if his presence was required, and sufficiently far to escape
the smells and noise of the streets. A little town had
arisen round him, a town of luxury and official cere-
monies, in which each of the great officers of the crown
possessed their lodging, where picked artisans made the
things required by the court, goldsmiths skilled in melt-»
ing and chasing the gold of Syria or Ethiopia, engravers
on fine stones, glass-makers, enamellers, embroiderers,
weavers. The remains of the quarters in which they
lived have been brought to light, and here and there the
sites of their workshops may be recognized. Scoriae
1 Cf. Chapter XXV.
PALACE OF AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH 223
[of coloured pastes and enamels mark the place of the
glass-makers, as the fellaheen of the district well know;
they provide themselves with whole or broken objects
which they sell to strangers. Amenothes III had a
passion for jewels, and for pottery in blue or polychrome
enamel. The pieces so much admired by us for their
bright tones, brilliant glaze, purity, elegance of shape,
and delicacy of workmanship, have come for years from
the ruins of his villa; there are cups in the shape of the
calyx of a full-blown lotus flower, drinking vessels which
simulate a pond teeming with aquatic plants and peopled
with fishes, collyrium pots, ampuUas, flower vases, amu-
lets, round or long beads for necklaces and bracelets,
plain rings, and rings with gems. Some are mere
rubbish and rough fragments, but if these are so beauti-
ful, we ask what the perfect pieces must have been like
in their first freshness.
The palace itself is rectangular in shape. It was sur-
rounded by a wall of medium thickness, pierced by doors
at rare and irregular intervals. The outer side of the
wall is a blind, undecorated facade. Beyond it came a
veritable labyrinth of narrow courtyards, pillared halls,
small chambers, garrets all communicating with one
another, and here and there ending in blind alleys. The
surface thus covered measures rather more than four
acres. The remains of the walls are rarely higher than
about five feet, in more than one place only the levellings
are left, or even only the trenches hollowed for the
[foundations. The thickness varied from a little over a
foot and a half to a little over three feet, according to the
;Size of the rooms, and they were about eighteen feet
[high. The whole was of unbaked bricks, some of which
|had received the impression of the two cartouches of the
^king. The floor was of beaten clay, which had become
as hard as stone. The walls were covered with a rough
;oat of mud, like that everywhere employed in the
224 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
villages. The ceilings were of two slightry different
kinds. In the smaller rooms and in the corridors small
beams of palm or acacia wood were thrown across from
wall to wall, heavy palm fibre mats were placed above,
covered with a thick layer of beaten earth. A more com-
plicated method was used for the halls. A series of
beams, such as I have just described, was placed on the
wooden architraves which connected the pillars, and
they were fastened by means of joists firmly joined
above ; then the sunk panels were filled in with soft clay,
so that a heavy, stiff covering was obtained with plenty
of resisting power. The fragments of ceilings which
lie scattered among the ruins, and the still standing
bases of walls bear traces of bright, cheerful paintings of
the same type as those we admire in the tombs and
temples. Vultures with outspread wings, and flocks of
geese or ducks, framed in many-coloured curved or
spiral lines, soar on the ceilings. Figures of women
dance on the walls, and the pavements, similar to those
in the palaces of El-Amarna,^ seem to be pools of water
filled with aquatic plants or marshes with grazing oxen.
Fish pursue each other under the waters, birds sport
among the lotus flowers, and captives bound in uncom-
fortable positions line the banks.
Nothing in the aspect of the place authorizes us to
conjecture exactly how the family and their servants dis-
tributed themselves through the palace, but we can dis-
tinguish the grand apartments from those used in
everyday life. Two oblong, rectangular walls, sup-
ported by two parallel lines of columns, were evidently
used as guard-rooms; there the crowd of courtiers and
officers of the crown assembled, and on audience or
festival days hierarchically took up their positions, each
according to his rank. Foreign ambassadors waited
there until the moment of offering the gifts or tributes of
1 Cf. Chapter VII.
PALACE OF AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH 225
their masters ; generals, on their return from a successful
expedition, received there the reward of their victory.
Important persons of Thebes and of the whole of Egypt
paid homage there to Pharaoh with due eloquence and
genuflexion. The semi-barbarous pomp of the Egyptian
court pervaded the place with its contrasts of extreme
refinement and African barbarity. It was displayed in
garments of almost transparent lawn, and in skins of
animals, in paint, in tattooing, in flowers in profusion,
in strong perfumes on heads and bodies; perhaps
solemn banquets were given there, and bestial feasting
succeeded the interminable palavers in which sovereign
and subjects exchanged the most extravagant compli-
ments, like the negro or Malgache chiefs of our day.
An antechamber of modest dimensions led to the private
cabinet of Amenothes III. Persons admitted to the
honour of the royal presence suddenly saw before them,
framed by two columns of painted wood, the dais on
which the Majesty of the living Horus deigned to reveal
himself to them, and, set off against the semi-darkness,
the luminous figure of Pharaoh. It appeared to them
like a sacred image, in the stiff attitude of sovereignty,
immovable, the eyes fixed, symbolical diadems on the
forehead, the sceptre and anserated cross in the hands,
all shining with gold and enamel. They had to cover
their eyes as if unable to endure the brightness of the
divine countenance, then to throw themselves flat on the
ground and smelling at the earthy to wait until the idol
spoke to them. The postures varied according to their
rank, and according to the degree of favour desirable
to show them. Some were left prostrated, nose againsi
the ground; others remained kneeling, others again
stood, but bent in two; some enjoyed the privilege of
standing up straight with only the head slightly bent.
Like the religious services, the royal receptions were a
sort of ballet accompanied with words, each act of which
15
226 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
was regulated with an attention to detail enough to have
plunged a Byzantine master of the ceremonies into
despair. Persons entered amidst singing, and left
amidst shouts accompanied by the sound of timbrels,
and the conversation which occurred at the interview
had to be spoken in rhythm and with carefully studied
intonations. A voice in perfect tune was required for
addressing the lords of the earth, just as for addressing
the lords of heaven.
The bathrooms were numerous, as beseemed a prince
who was half a god, and whose sacerdotal functions
imposed strict cleanliness. Three of them still contained,
when they were excavated, the slabs of stone on which
the bather crouched or lay in order to be dried and
massaged, and the pipes which brought the water. A
few bedrooms were near at hand, with the platform on
which the bed stood. Other rooms, smaller and quite
bare, seem to have belonged to the servants. Nothing
has yet shown us where the kitchens were, but so much
still remains to be excavated that there is every chance
of seeing them rise up out of the earth during one of
the next campaigns. It will be the same with the store-
houses, arsenals, granaries, chapels, necessary adjuncts
of every royal or princely villa. The tombs of El-
Amarna show us what intense life went on there. The
artist has drawn there the palace built by the fanatic
Khouniatonou, son of Amenothes III, and the people of
his court, almost on the plan and with the decoration of
the palace of Medinet-Habou. In the hall, Pharaoh and
his family are receiving some high functionary; the
guard watches at the doors, and chamberlains introduce
the personage, while troops of slaves bring refreshments
and the customary gifts. A priest is busily celebrating
a ceremony of votive offerings in one of the chapels.
A maid-servant tucks herself into bed in a little room.
Scribes or inferior employes take their meals in their
PALACE OF AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH 227
own rooms. A dancing-girl rehearses her steps in a
retired corner of the palace, her companions accompany-
ing her on the guitar, and they are all preparing to shine
at the fete in the evening. These scenes need only be
transported to Medinet-Habou to repeople the palace,
and to behold it as it was in the days of its splendour.
Indeed, the care with which the Egyptian artists repre-
sented all the episodes of domestic life is carried so far,
that we may sometimes read above the figures the most
characteristic of the conversations they held; the echo
of their talk reaches us faint and broken through the
distance of time. In going through the rooms we in-
stinctively restore the furniture to its place, the beds,
with lion's head and feet, piled with their red mattresses,
the arm-chairs, the small tables, the variegated boxes,
the perfume and kohol pots, all that belongs to the
world of Egyptian coquetry. It would not surprise us
to meet in some retired corner the sleeping maid-servant,
or the dancing-girl rehearsing her steps.
XXXI
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF PROPHECIES
Like the Hebrews, the Egyptians had their holy pro-
phets, whose predictions circulated from mouth to
mouth, were then written down, and copied through long
ages in fragments more or lesschanged from the original,
and, lastly, became classical texts read and commented
on in the schools. Chance has preserved little of these
interesting works, and that little is not always easy to
understand. The one, the fragments of which Lange
has just analyzed,^ is rendered very obscure by the
lacunae which occur in every line of the text. It fills one
of the papyri sold by Anastasi to the Leyden Museum ; it
was paraphrased in German by Lauth more than thirty
years ago, and I expounded it at the ^cole des Hautes-
Etudes, but these various attempts did not secure for
it the attention it deserves. Now, again, Lange gives
only a summary interpretation, translating the phrases
which seem to him most clear, and indicating the prob-
able meaning of the others, intending to prove his
assertions in a memoir to appear shortly. He will have
plenty to do to explain the detail; so far, however, he
has defined the framework and indicated the plan with
sufficient clarity to enable us to form an opinion on the
value of the work.
The prophet was named Apoui ; we are not told if it was
his vocation to predict the future, or if the divine spirit
1 H. O. Lange : " Prophezeiungen eines iEgyptischen Weisen
aus dem Papyrus I, 344, in Leiden," in the Sitzungsberichte of the
Berlin Academy of Sciences, XXVII, 1903.
228
EGYPTIAN BOOK OF PROPHECIES 229
seized him by chance, as it did Amenophis,^ the potter,
for the beginning of the volume has disappeared. When
the text becomes fairly coherent, the hero is standing
before Pharaoh. He is speaking as beseems a prophet,
and his whole discourse is of the 'disasters that are
about to fall on Egypt. Family ties will be broken,
society will be overturned, dejection will lay hold of
all the people. ** It is in vain that the Nile will
overflow, the fields will no longer be cultivated by its
aid ; each man will say : * What is the use of it ? Do we
not know what is going !o happ)en to the land?' The
women will be barren, for Khnoumou, the god of birth,
will not help them because of the condition of Egypt.
People of lowly rank will become the possessors of all the
valuables, so that he who lacked the wherewithal to pro-
cure himself a pair of sandals will be the owner of gran-
aries full of grain. Terrible epidemics will break out
which will attack all classes alike. The plague will lay
hold of Egypt, there will be bloodshed everywhere; the
rich will lament, the poor will rejoice, and all the cities
will say : * Let us drive out the powerful from among us.'
The expulsion will not take place without resistance, and
civil war will desolate the valley ; the rivers will be turned
into blood, and, although ye will not like it, ye will have
to drink of it, and thirst after water." The barbarians of
the desert will profit by the general weakness to invade
the rich black earth they have so long desired ; they will
massacre the brave people who resist them, and the
slaves, being no more in bondage, will supplant their
lasters. "They will hang gold, lapis-lazuli, silver,
lalachite, cornelian round the necks of their wives, while
princesses will be thrown info the street, and high-born
lames will say : 'Ifonly we had something toeat I"* And
everything that exists will be destroyed; there will be
10 more taxes, no more hierarchy, no more privileges.
1 Cf. Chapter XXV.
230 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
" The son of some one of standing will no longer be
preferred to him who is the son of one of no rank," and
** the very animals will weep, the cattle will lament for
the wretched condition of the country.'* The temples
will no longer be respected; the holy things will be
desecrated by sacrilegious hands. *' The books of the
sanctuary will be taken away, and the mysterious shrines
will be unveiled; the magic charms will be revealed;
the archives will be opened, and the titles to property
be stolen." Violence will prevail everywhere. '* Woe
to me, on account of the triumph of evil I"
So far, royalty was spared, and it might be hopeH that
Pharaoh would succeed in restoring peace lo his king-
dom ; but he is attacked in his turn, and his impotence
consummates the ruin of the classes which depended on
him. '* Behold, the rich man sleeps without having
been able to quench his thirst, while he who was reduced
to beg a little sour wine is now the owner of well-filled
jars. The owner of fine stuffs has now only rags, but he
for whom none wove is possessor of fine muslins. He who
could not build for himself the poorest sort of boat is the
master of granaries full of grain, and he who possessed
granaries has not even a boat. He who lacked water-
melons now possesses them, and those who had them
are now empty as air. He who lacked bread has no^ ^
granary, and his larder is furnished with what lately be-
longed to another. He who had his head shaved, and
lacked perfumed essences, is now rich in pots of sweet-
smelling myrrh." All the contrasts that wide knowledge
of Egyptian society and its manners could suggest to a
clever writer, abound in the following pages. We see
pass over them in succession the beggar-woman who had
no other mirror than the water, and who now paints her
eyes before a beautiful disk of polished metal ; the poor
devils who formerly could not obtain a pair of oxen for
their plough suddenly find themselves possessors of a
EGYPTIAN BOOK OF PROPHECIES 231
whole herd ; the workman without one slave is the master
of hundreds of serfs; the rich man of former days is in
these unhappy times compelled to sit as a parasite at the
table of a man who was formerly poor, and is now pro-
moted to be rich in his turn. For those who can read the
original, it is clear that that portion of the prophecy was
in a very elaborate style. Alliteration abounds, and
every sentence moves to a fairly regular rhythm ; in more
than one case I should even say that there were asso-
nances, if our ignorance of the exact pronunciation did
not compel me to step warily. It is certain that the bril-
liancy of expression, and the sonority of the elocution,
concealed the poverty and banality of the matter from
the auditors. Now we are most struck by all that is com-
monplace in the inspiration of the prophet, and fail to
understand what were the qualities that justified his suc-
cess. The text, robbed of what assured it its literary
value, and stripped of its prophetic importance, has only
one sort of interest for us : it reveals to us numerous
details of the life of the time that the sculptured
monuments fail to give.
Like most of his kind, however, the prophet was too
prudent to leave his hearers or readers with an impression
of terror, or ieven of sadness. After enumerating at
length the misfortunes of his people, he had to promise
them at equal length a triumphant return of prosperity,
'ollowing the particular rhetorical form, a sovereign
raised up by God will suddenly appear, and ** will bring
fresh water for the burning flames. It is said he is the
jhepherd of all men, who has no evil in his heart, and
hen his flock goes astray, spends the day in seeking it."
^e restores peace, and under his beneficent influence
)cial life flourishes again, marriages again become fruit-
ful, safety reigns on all the highways. Egypt, having
recovered her warlike power, the races who surround her,
[Bedouins, Negroes, Libyans, again submit to her yoke.
232 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
In that portion of the manuscript the lacunae are So con-
siderable that the text cannot be restored. We can
scarcely deduce the series of ideas from the fragments of
phrases we decipher, we feel them rather.
It is, however, clear that the dominating idea is that
of the good shepherd ; the prophet draws an ideal portrait
of him, and liberally endows him with the virtues that
the Egyptians exacted of the model Pharaoh. He must
be both administrator and general, in order to enrich his
people by the arts of war as well as by those of peace.
For the Egyptian, happiness consists in not working
himself, or at least in doing as little work as possible,
and in enjoying the material comfort to which his fortune
gives him a right. Delicate fare, fine clothes, precious
jewels, a house cool in summer and warm in winter, a
garden with an artificial lake to which he repairs to
breathe '* the soft wind of the north,** songs, dances, a
harem, are the things he craves. The king predicted by
the prophet will ensure his subjects this lazy, sensual
existence until the day comes when death exiles them to
the domain of Osiris; in his wars he will gain what is
required to spare them the need to work, gold, silver,
perfumes, stuffs, and, above all, male and female slaves
who will dig the ground, practise trades, recruit the
army, will be the producers of their luxuries and the
instruments of their pleasures.
The themes chosen are not of a high order, and their
treatment, at least to us, does not compensate for the
banality of the inspiration. Apoui does not appear to
great advantage if compared with some of the Hebrew
prophets. It must not, however, be hastily concluded
that the prophetic literature of Egypt was always so
poor in quality and sentiment. All who took up pro-
phesying, either professionally or as amateurs, were not
necessarily men of genius ; for a few Isaiahs, how many
poor rhetoricians there were among the Hebrews I Apoui
EGYPTIAN BOOK OF PROPHECIES 233
certainly knew all the threads, and must have Success-
fully manipulated them, since his book was copied long
after his day, but we no longer appreciate the turns of
his language, and, when we study ancient Egypt,
matter interests us more than form, and with him the
matter is mediocre. What gives him worth in our eyes
is the fact that, so far, he is the first to show us a frag-
ment of what was a branch of Egyptian literature. We
knew that the Pharaohs had a priesthood specially
charged to inform them of the will of the gods ; were its
members always professionals, who uttered the oracles
in few words, without any pretension to literary style, or
were there some among them who prided themselves on
their fine language? We now know that prophecy on
occasion had a literary form among the Egyptians, as
among the Semites; it was so under the Xllth Dynasty,
to which Apoul is said to have belonged, and it was
doubtless so under earlier Dynasties. We hope some
day to find other and better works of a similar sort,
which may worthily stand beside the great Hebrew
prophecies.
XXXII
THE EGYPTIAN ORIGIN OF THE ATTIC DIONYSUS
The Athenians knew that Dionysus came to them from
abroad, but otherwise had only confused ideas about his
origin. Foucart has just discovered it in Egypt, in the
Osiris of the Infernal Regions.^ It is not his first at-
tempt at such researches, for ten years ago he showed
in what close relations the Eleusinian mysteries stood to
the religion of Egypt.^ The thesis he there laid down
caused more astonishment than approbation in the
classical world. The Hellenists of the present day often
treat the East as the Hellenes did in old days. The
latter knew, associated with and ruled Egyptians, Chal-
daeans, Assyrians, and Phoenicians for centuries, and
could have given us exact information about them; but
to do that they would have had to learn barbarous
tongues, to have consulted books written in complicated
characters, to have deciphered inscriptions, in fact, to
have taken a great deal of trouble. They preferred to
make their inquiries of the dragomans, and to beg tales
of them, rounding off what they thus learned with in-
ventions of their own brains. If, perchance, a native,
Manetho or Berosus, tried to correct them, they did
not take the trouble to copy their works and read
them. The Hellenists have behaved in the same way.
Ancient tradition showed them the part that the East
1 " Le Culte de Dionysos en Attique," par P. Foucart, Member of
the Institute. (Extract from the Mdmoires de rAcadimie des Inscrip-
tions et Belles-Lettres^ Vol. xxxvii. 1904.)
3 Cf. Chapter VI.
334
I
ORIGIN OF THE ATTIC DIONYSUS 235
had had in the formation of Greece, and Egypt and
Assyria were at hand with documents which would
enable them to judge of the authenticity of those tradi-
tions, but it would have been necessary to free them-
selves from the classical routine and to venture among
hieroglyphics and cuneiforms. Many are now bold
enough to do so, and both they and the cause of
learning reap the benefit. It is M. Foucart's merit to
have prepared the way, and those who follow the plan
he has traced will have every chance of success.
Everything he demonstrates is not equally convincing,
and for a variety of reasons. Dionysus is a complex
god in whom several gods of differing origins are
mingled. The legends of him in the various districts
of Greece are involved and entangled in each other; the
meaning of certain ceremonies or certain names has be-
come changed or lost with the passage of time, and
ordinary people as well as students, no longer under-
standing them, have lent them fantastic explanations.
Further, it happens that, with very few exceptions, the
Sacred emblems and the formulas of prayer which might
have revealed origins were destroyed at the time of the
extinction of paganism. Most of the characteristic cere-
monies were performed in profound mystery by a small
number of persons, under oath to reveal nothing, and it
would have been sacrilege to repeat even the most in-
significant detail. The only things on which modern
jtudents can base their opinions are fragments of in-
;riptions, scattered allusions and discussions in the
mcient writers, glosses borrowed from older scholars by
scholiasts of a later epoch who did not wholly under-
stand the texts they transcribed. It is not easy to find
me*s way among this doubtful information, and to dis-
tinguish the truth. It is possibly to be discovered at
Ipoints very distant in time, and the interpretation of a
[myth will be found to have varied considerably between
236 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the fifth century before and the second century after
Christ. It seems that Dionysus would have appeared in
the lesser mysteries not only as the protector of agricul-
ture, but as the sovereign of the Infernal Regions. In
that double quality he corresponded to the Egyptian
Osiris, but our information on the point is so scanty
that we cannot do more than conjecture. Similarly, the
legend that ascribes the discovery of vine culture and
the making of wine to Dionysus reminds us that the
Egyptians gave the honour of those inventions to Osiris ;
but it is only a subordinate feature with the Egyptians;
whereas in Greece Dionysus soon came to preside, pre-
eminent and unique, over wine. If the worship had
not more completely preserved more essential character-
istics, it would be almost impossible to justify the
identity in origin of Dionysus and Osiris. The rites of
the festivals, especially those of the Anthesteria, are the
only things that still prove it.
The Anthesteria were the most ancient and the most
solemn of the festivals of Dionysus, and were, besides,
common to all the lonians; they comprised almost in-
coherent extremes of joy and sadness, *'as if Shrove
Tuesday and All Saints' Day were mingled together."
It began on the nth of the month Anthesterion, by the
opening of the jars which contained the new wine. The
jars uncorked, the next day, the 12th, the rustics took
the unfermented grape juice to the town ; from their
chariots they apostrophized the passers-by, who returned
their jests with interest. In each house the head of the
family invited his relatives to a banquet in which three-
year-old children crowned with flowers took part for the
first time; even the slaves shared in the general jubila-
tion, and received their portion of wine. Meanwhile, by
invitation of the priest, a group of citizens assembled at
the temple ; they brought provisions in a basket, and an
earthen jar holding more than three quarts of wine.
ORIGIN OF THE ATTIC DIONYSUS 237
Each sat down alone at his table, and the sacred hero
having proclaimed the laws of the meeting, at a signal
of the trumpet they attacked their repast. The first to
empty his pitcher received a skin of wine as a prize from
the archon-king who presided over the festival. The
drinkers did not afterwards consecrate the wreaths they
had worn during the feast in the temples, but placed
them on their jars and delivered them to the priestess in
the sanctuary of Limnas, and the losers poured the wine
left over as a libation. That was the visible and popular
part of the festival. The fundamental rites were cele-
brated in the sanctuary of the Priest of Dionysus without
profane witnesses. That sanctuary was the oldest and
most revered of any in Athens, and was only opened
on the 1 2th Anthesterion ; the doors were then unclosed
before the queen, the wife of the archon-king, and before
her fourteen companions. A sacred herald, probably
he of Eleusis, assisted the queen when she exacted an
oath from her followers to reveal nothing of what would
be done, said, or seen ; then he allowed her to enter the
cell, where no other accompanied her. When she came
out she was formally married to the god, and the mystic
marriage was consummated the night after in a special
building, the Boucolion, which had been the residence of
the archon-king in the heroic ages. The statue of the
god repaired to the nuptial house, where it stayed until
the morrow, after which it returned to the sanctuary, and
E.e doors closed behind it until the 12th Anthesterion of
tC next year. The festival concluded on the 13th with
veritable funeral offering, in which neither priest nor
agistrate intervened. During the night each family
_ it a new saucepan on the fire and cooked in it without
meat a mixture of flour and all sorts of grain. No one
ate of it, but it was offered for the dead before Hermes,
' the conductor of souls, and before Dionysus, the two
divinities of the Infernal Regions. The Anthest^ria,
238 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
begun noisily in drunken revels, ended silently in
solemn mourning.
Those mysteries, so sacred to the ancients, would be
incomprehensible to us if certain details did not reveal
their purpose and analogy. The queen's companions
were fourteen in number, and offered sacrifices to
Dionysus on fourteen altars, with other ceremonies not
less secret than the rest. The ceremonial commemorated
both the number of murderers who, according to the
Cretan legend, massacred Dionysus, and the number of
pieces into which they divided the corpse. Foucart rightly
mentions the Egyptian legend in which Typhon, having
assassinated Osiris, tore his victim into fourteen pieces,
which he scattered among the nomes. Isis collected
them, put them together, and from their union drew her
Osiris, whom she resuscitated. The passion and resur-
rection of Osiris took place every year In all the temples
of Egypt, at the festivals of the month of Kihak. The
sisters Isis and Nephthys, assisted by Horus and
Anubis, made in fourteen moulds the fourteen pieces
of which the divine body had been reconstructed, and
then combined them into a perfect statue. They then
endowed the statue with life, and rising from its funeral
couch, it became again the god himself. Osiris, thus
called into being, took up all his functions again, even
to uniting himself with Isis, a circumstance Foucart
has perhaps not quite sufficiently demonstrated, and
was replaced in his tomb by another image for use at
the festival of the following year. Our knowledge of
the ceremonies of the Anthesteria scarcely permits us to
doubt that the Egyptian Osiris was the original of the
Attic Dionysus. We have in both cases the resurrec-
tion of a god who had been treacherously mutilated.
The number of pieces is the same, and the march of
events identical : just as Isis sought everywhere for the
remains of Osiris, so Demeter never rested till she had
I
ORIGIN OF THE ATTIC DIONYSUS 239
gathered together those of Dionysus, and only after she
had restored the body did the god come again into exist-
ence. The mysteries of the 12th Anthesterion exactly
reproduced the principal features of the Egyptian legend
and the practices to which it gave rise. The queen and
her companions entered the temple where the statue had
rested since the preceding year, and pretended to search
for the fourteen pieces of the god ; then the queen alone
put them together, and having formed a new image she
took it in her arms, and carried it into the sanctuary in
order to bring it to life. We do not know what deeds
she performed, or what formulas she used, but their
result was immediately manifest. Dionysus rose out of
the darkness, alive, young, and vigorous, and went to
the Boucolion to contract marriage with the wife of the
archon-king. The next day he returned to his temple
to die and to be resolved again into his fourteen pieces,
and then he fell back into the solitude of his tomb. The
placing of the saucepans on the fire, the cooking and
offering of various grains and of flour, clearly point to
the funeral signification of the rites with which the
Anthesteria concluded. Families took advantage of the
moment when the sanctuary closed on the inanimate god
to entrust him to take to their dead relatives the nourish-
ment of which they imagined they would have need.
The Egyptian style of these ideas did not fail to strike
those students who knew something of the researches of
Egyptologists, and the proof would be absolute if our
knowledge of the ancients was as connected and co-
ordinate as Foucart presents it. Unfortunately it is so
isolated and disjointed that many Hellenists will be
inclined to ask if Foucart has not in all good faith him-
self introduced what seems to him the Egyptian element
in the festival of Dionysus, based on his opinion that
Greece has borrowed much from Egypt. In order that
his ideas should be credited by Hellenists, he must
240 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
wait until the progress of Egyptian studies and the ex-
cavations on Hellenic soil have banished the distrust
that has so long prevailed in their minds. Perhaps it
will not be as long as he fears. Crete has arisen at the
extremity of the ^gean Sea with its brilliant civiliza-
tion ; it leaves the domain of fable to which modern critics
relegated it, for the reality of history. As its monuments
are revealed to us, we see how strongly they betray the
influence of the East, that of Egypt and Chaldaea. It
was no empty boast of the Theban Pharaohs of the
XVIIIth Dynasty when they assumed the title of the
masters of the Very Green islands; their ships landed
there, and if the supremacy they exercised was slight
and unstable, it did not the less exist.^ There is little likeli-
hood that the ruins have in store for us documents that
will give us information concerning the reflux of ideas
and rites from the Delta to the Archipelago and the
continent of Europe. But as soon as the material facts
of the commercial and political relations are demon-
strated to the Hellenists, spiritual relations will follow
of themselves, and the traditions of Egyptian colonies
or of religious borrowings that they have hitherto so
decidedly put aside, will have credence in their eyes
as they have long had in ours.
1 Cf. Chapter..V.
XXXIII
A NEW TOMB IN THE VALLEY OF THE THEBAN KINGS
It will soon be four years since Theodore Davis,
an American travelling in Egypt, asked and obtained
permission to explore the valley of the kings at Thebes.
He undertook the task in no egotistical spirit; he paid
the workmen and made the excavations, but we retain all
that he found, except a few duplicate pieces which we
presented to him by way of souvenir. And it is a great
merit on his part to be contented with so little, for the
plan of campaign elaborated there at the beginning of
the operations by the director-general and by Mr. Carter,
chief inspector of the Said, results every winter in
important finds. At the very beginning, in 1903, the
tomb of Thoutmosis IV was discovered, with its marvel-
lous embroideries, blue pottery, pieces of painted wood
or of statues, his state chariot with the chased seat. In
1904 Queen Hatshopsouitou rendered up her three fine
limestone sarcophagi. It is now the turn of louiya,
father of one of the most famous princesses of the
XVIIIth Dynasty, Tiyi, wife of Amenothes III, and
mother of Amenothes IV. The former tombs had been
repeatedly rifled and plundered by a band of negroes
under the XlXth and XXth Dynasties; the quantity of
^^agments found there which we regard as wealth, are
^Perely what those old robbers left behind. The tomb
just discovered, however, was violated with discretion
by persons who almost possessed respect for the dead,
and who were in too great a hurry to despoil it
16 241
i
242 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
thoroughly ; if they broke open the coffins and took the
jewels from the mummies, they did not touch the
equipment.
The architects did not greatly exert their imaginations
when drawing up their plans, and the work did not make
a very big hole in the royal treasury. They chose a site
sufficiently removed from those reserved by the four
Thoutmosis for their resting-places ; it was situated near
the spot where one of the ravines that furrow the eastern
slope of the hill joins the central wady. They hollowed
out a staircase of about thirty steps which runs at first
open to the sky, and then plunges into the rock, and
leads to a narrow door just high enough for a man of
medium height to enter without knocking his forehead
against the lintel. It leads scarcely into a chamber, but
rather into a rectangular cavity, roughly hollowed out in
the rock, ill-quarried, low-ceilinged, unornamented either
by sculpture or painting, hardly capable of holding the
coffins and the rest of the funerary gear. The last of the
Egyptians to visit it had, in withdrawing, filled up the
portion of the staircase which lay level with the ground,
then the water which flows in torrents through the ravine
on stormy days had carried down to the embankment so
compact a bed of loose pebbles and sand that the work-
men's pickaxes had difficulty in breaking it up. Mr.
Quibell, who had just succeeded Mr. Carter in the
superintendence of the works, managed to pierce it, and
had already got at the upper steps when his professional
duty sending him to show the Temple of Edfou to
the Duke of Connaught, he was deprived of the pleasure
of opening the tomb with Mr. Davis. It seemed that
the thieves, after despoiling the mummy, felt some
qualms of conscience at carrying off in addition to
the jewels, certain objects easy of transport, for there
were found on the steps a scarab in green stone,
pieces of an alabaster vase, the painted and gilded
TOMB IN VALLEY OF THEBAN KINGS 243
yoke of a chariot, a walking-stick with a gilded knob,
a large roll of illuminated papyrus; a parcel of onions
and of dried herbs had been carelessly thrown on to
a bench at the left of the staircase. On February
1 2th, in the evening, the door appeared half hidden
under the dust; on the 13th, in the morning, it was
completely laid open to view, and the wall which
enclosed it was visible in its full height. The bricks had
kept the coating of fine clay which the masons had given
it on the evening of the funeral, and the exact impress of
the seals placed on it by the guardians of the necropolis, a
jackal couchant, and underneath three rows of kneeling
prisoners, their arms bound behind their backs. The
thieves had destroyed the two or three upper courses in
order to enter by the opening, and there could be seen
in confusion at the end a heap of dark objects, relieved
here and there with gold at points where they caught
the light.
Nothing is rarer now in the Theban necropolis than
virgin tombs ; I have only found one in eleven years, that
of Sannotmou, and it belonged to people of the poorer
class. The tomb we are considering sheltered persons
of very high rank, and it was so filled up from floor to
ceiling that at first sight it seemed untouched; but on
closer inspection the action of the malefactors became
evident. The large black and gilded coffin of the upper
row was yawning open, the panels warped, the boards
(lisjointed, the cover fallen on one side, the mummy
educed to a bundle of torn rags; but the rest of the
objects remained as they had been arranged during the
eremony of the interment. The space between the top of
the brick wall and the lintel of the door is narrow enough,
ut there is no slit behind which an archaeologist suspects
e may find something new or unknown too small for
im to get through. He undergoes much discomfort,
ut he manages to squeeze through, and once he has set
244 ^EW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
foot in the chamber seems to have left behind him all the
centuries that have elapsed since the dead man was alive ;
the mummy has just descended to the vault, the celebrant
performs the last rites, the acolytes finish placing the
furniture and the offerings. Its whole appearance would
almost lead us to mistake it for that of Maiharpiriou ; ^
it suggests the epoch of Thoutm6sis IV or Amenothes
III, and the first impression is justified by a reading of the
inscriptions. On a wooden arm-chair there is mention
of the Princess Sitamanou, daughter of Amenothes III,
then on a phial the cartouche of Amenothes himself, and
elsewhere on coffins, boxes, statuettes, vases, with the
most unexpected variants in the spelling, two names,
almost famous, those of the lady Touiyou and of her hus-
band, the hereditary prince, the first among the friends
of the sovereign, he whom the lord king, the divine
father made great, loved hy his master loutya. Fortune,
which often betrays us, has this time deigned to shower
its favours on Mr. Davis ; it has led him to the house of
the father of the queen Tiyi, about whose origin students
have held so many strange opinions. Many things in
her funeral trousseau were given her by the members
of her family, children, sons-in-law, grandchildren;
Pharaoh himself must have seen them to decide if they
were worthy of being offered to a person who stood so
near him, and our hands in touching them are perhaps
the first to efface the traces of his.
The thieves made a clear place near the foot of the
coffin in order to carry on their depredations more con-
veniently, and at the south of the chamber the ground is
visible on a surface of two or three square feet. We know
both from the texts and the pictured representations that
^ A tomb not far from this one discovered by M. Loret in 1899.
Maiharpiriou — the lion on the fields of battle — was the son of a Pharaoh
of the XVIIIth Dynasty, probably Thoutmosis III, and of a black
princess. The complete equipment of his tomb is now in the Cairo
Museum.
TOMB IN VALLEY OF THEBAN KINGS 245
the statues of the double, the mummies, the chests, the
sarcophagi, all the funerary gear had to be placed on the
ground itself or on the solid stone; it ought to rest on
sand, but the tombs to which we have usually had access
were in such confusion that it was impossible for us
to determine to what point the prescriptions of the ritual
had been observed. Here the bed of sand exists as it had
been prepared by the workmen of the necropolis, and it
held all the objects. They present an incredible variety,
and we might say that they multiplied before our eyes
as our candles lighting the chamber caused them to rise
up out of the gloom. Two draped, wooden rectangles
leaned against the wall, probably two of the low frames
consecrated to Osiris Vegetating, The form of a large
mummified Osiris was drawn on the stuff, face uncovered,
arms free, diadem on brow, and was then filled in with
the seed of barley or corn, which was gently watered
until the grain began to sprout. When the stalk was a
few inches high it was laid down flat and the whole
enveloped in wrappings. It was an allegorical defini-
tion of the destinies of the soul; man would grow as
did the buried grain, and from his death arose another
life as vigorous and fruitful as the first. An arm-chair
in dark wood, ornamented with reliefs and gilded in-
scriptions leaned against the wall between the beds,
respondents worked with gold or silver wire were piled
up in a corner ; the tomb must have contained an extra-
ordinary amount of goldsmiths' work for the thieves
to have left so much behind. The statuettes are with-
out a scratch, the chests are intact, and that the colours
are dulled is due to the slight veil of dust spread over them
by the passage of time. They soon become bright again
when it is carefully wiped off. The northern part is
less piled up with rubbish, and the wealth is equally
great : we found the arm-chair inscribed with the name
of Sitamanou, little figures, boxes for respondents^
246 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
perfume-pots, all sorts of provisions, jars full of essences
for the ritual, weapons. At the end against the wall
was a chariot with its pole, its axle, its wheels, its har-
ness, and, if it resists the action of the air, the Cairo
museum will at last possess what exists nowhere else,
a whole chariot ready for the horses to be yoked to it.
Much time must elapse before we shall know exactly
what unsuspected marvels the ingenious packing of the
tomb still hides; the removal of the treasures and the
methodical inventory are to be begun at once. Messrs.
Quibell and Weigall, the inspectors of the service, will
share their task with Malvezzi, Ayrton, and Parabeni,
who will kindly leave their own excavations to lend us
a helping hand ; they will measure the objects one after
the other, number them, photograph them, pack them,
and Mr. Lindon Smith will copy in water-colour those of
which the colours are in most danger of fading. Mr.
Davis will take the most fragile on board his dahabieh in
order to save them from the jolting of a railway journey,
the others will be put into cases and entrusted to the Said
express. In three weeks louiya will arrive at Cairo with
all of her trousseau that the thieves of old consented to
leave her. Objects arranged in museums bear the same
relation to those that remain in their legitimate places
as the most skilfully stuffed animal bears to the creature
who has just died, and whose limbs are still filled with
the last breaths of life. To remove them from the spot
where their contemporaries had placed them is almost to
inflict on them a second death, and to break the bonds
that the first had respected with the world to which they
belonged. I should have liked to keep the hypogeum of
louiya just at it was at the moment of its discovery, but
it would have meant leaving it the prey of evil chances.
Everything would have conspired to hasten its destruc-
tion or its spoliation, the indiscreet curiosity of tourists,
the cupidity of the Arabs, the unscrupulous covetousness
I
TOMB IN VALLEY OF THEBAN KINGS 247
)f amateur collectors, and the beasts of the field would
[not be more merciful than men. One of the vases we
|lincorked contained thick oil, another almost liquid
loney, which still preserved its scent. If it had been left
'ithout its cover on one of the steps of the staircase, near
the entrance of the corridor, a marauding wasp, having
strayed into the Valley of the Kings, would have hovered
gluttonously round the jar. We should have had to
send it away by flapping a handkerchief to prevent it
taking a portion of the honey gathered by ancient bees
from the flowers of the Theban meadows more than three
thousand years ago.
XXXIV
THE OASIS OF AMMON
The Oasis of Ammon was familiar to many of us in
our childhood. Alexander went there to hold consulta-
tion with the god, and returned a god himself. Some say
two crows, others, two serpents, put him in the right
road just as he had lost it, and guided him within sight
of the mystic city. On his arrival, Ammon went to
salute him, borne in his sarcophagus on the shoulders of
the priests, and uttered the deceptive speech in the course
of which he called him his son. He promised him
dominion over the universe, and proclaimed that victory
would be true to his flag until the end. The Oasis was
far off, and Alexander said little of what he saw and
heard there. The world never knew in detail what hap-
pened in that corner of the desert; it believed what the
witnesses of the interview consented to tell, or did not
believe it, and it did not laugh more than was seemly
when told that the hero had a god for his father. The
reputation of Olympias suffered somewhat from the
revelation, but that would not have made any great
matter; to have been the object of a divine caprice was
not without glory, and as Philip was no longer there to
protest, no one thought of raising a voice on his behalf.
The oracle benefited by the adventure; it remained the
fashion for several centuries, and even when it had lost
prestige with the pious, its name was not effaced from
the memory of new generations. Quintus Curtius and
Plutarch aiding, French school-boys continued to take
interest in it ; in accordance with the syllabuses, pupils of
248
THE OASIS OF AMMON 249
'rench schools were taught the parf it played in the
listory of Alexander.
They would have been much embarrassed had they
been asked to point out the exact site, or if the ruins of
the temple in which Ammon had dwelt still existed. The
Oasis is not easy of access, and since the oracle of Am-
mon became dumb has rarely been visited by travellers.
It would not take long to enumerate the Europeans who
have been there since the beginning of the nineteenth
century, and if we put together all the weeks that they
spent there we should not get a complete year. Stein-
dorff and his companions ^ stayed there only twenty-one
days, from December 19, 1899, to January 8, 1900. The
people there are not hospitable to strangers. They are
divided into five or six clans, each of about twenty
families, and have for centuries formed almost a close
community, having no relations of consequence with the
outer world. They are divided into two political and
religious factions, into two gofs, who usually live in a
state of churlish truce, and who only keep up the relations
strictly necessary for government and commerce. They
intermarry but little, yet scarcely a generation passes
without a civil war, which is fiercely waged for months
together, and only ceases through general exhaustion.
The last was in 1896, and it was one of the most ferocious.
We are assured that 160 combatants were left on the
field, and that the losses would have been heavier still
had not Senoussi sheikhs come from Djarboub and inter-
vened to bring about peace. Since that time the
Egyptian police has maintained order, and the Oasis is
quietly gaining strength for fresh conflicts. Its popula-
tion is a little under 6,000; as the men outnumber the
women, there is very little polygamy. They speak a
corrupted Berber dialect, interspersed with Arab words.
^ S. Steindorff : Durch die Libysche Wiiste zur Amonsoase. Leipzig.
1904.
250 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
There is scarcely any trade, and less industry. Caravans
Import tobacco, sugar, powder, arms, a few European
cotton goods, and a little jewellery at irregular intervals ;
the rest is made on the spot by the women, or the artisans
of the bazaar. Dates and olives are the chief wealth
of the people; not only do they form their food, but
every year about twelve tons are exported to Egypt and
Syria. With the produce of the sales they pay the
tribute, and procure the few luxuries to be found among
them.
It was almost the same in the time of the Pharaonic
rule. The Theban kings of the XVIIIth or XlXth
Dynasty were probably the first to take firm possession
of the Oasis. They installed their god Amonra there,
and built him a chapel, in which he was enthroned, if
not with all the pomp, at least with all the rites to which
he was accustomed in his native land. Neighbouring
Libyan tribes, already partly imbued with Egyptian
civilization, did not renounce their national religion for
him, but they frequented his services and did him
homage. One of his attributes especially struck their
imagination, the skill with which he foresaw the future
and unveiled it for those who questioned him according
to the prescribed ceremonial. His statue spoke in the
darkness of the sanctuary; it replied to the questions
asked of it by a movement of the head, and when two
scrolls, each containing a different solution of the same
question, were placed in his hands, it kept hold of that
which it considered to have value, and let the other
drop.^ The Libyan divinities were less expert or less
refined in manner; their believers no longer applied to
them in serious circumstances, but were accustomed to
seek the advice of the foreigner. They reverently
resorted to him from every corner of the desert, and his
fame soon reaching the coast, was spread among the
1 Cf. Chapter XVIII.
THE OASIS OF AMMON 251
joples dwelling on the shores of the Mediterranean.
[When the Dorians colonized Cyrene about the middle of
the seventh century B.C. they soon learned the existence
►f the oracle, and hastened to consult it ; then continental
Greece, informed of it by colonial Greece, began to send
embassies to the oracle in difficult conjunctures. From
the sixth to the fourth century B.C. two African oracles
divided the honours; each had zealous partisans, who
quarrelled unceasingly, and belittled the power of the
rival for the glorification of their own god. The oracle
of Bouto, in the Delta, was upheld by the lonians, and
the Asiatics grouped round Naucratis ; it seemed to pre-
vail until Egypt was conquered by the Persians. The
oracle of Ammon prevailed with the Cyreneans, and
through them with Hellas proper, but it did not attain the
supremacy until the beginning of the fifth century, when
the decadence of Naucratis had weakened the element
which upheld the cause of the gods of Bouto in the
world.
The Oasis, enriched by the continually increasing gifts
of the pilgrims, became an actual state, bound to Egypt
by ties more or less loose, according to the epoch. It had
its hereditary princes, whose suzerainty extended, per-
haps, over some of the smaller neighbouring oases,
that of Gara, for example. The oldest of them known
to us is Etearchos — perhaps the Egyptian name
'eharkou in Greek dress — who lived in the time of
[erodotus, and narrated very curious things about the
ioples of the African desert. The inscriptions copied
)y Steindorff reveal the existence less than a century
ifter him of three of his successors : Rauditneb, whose
>n Setertas was the vassal of the Pharaoh Hakoris
)i the XXIVth Dynasty, and lastly Ounamounou, who
ras a dependent of Nectanebo I, of the XXXth
dynasty. They found the temples in a bad state, and,
if they did not entirely rebuild them, they at least
252 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
restored them, and decorated them with very fair bas-
reliefs. But it was all new when the Macedonians
went to Egypt ; the ruins we find there to-day doubtless
belong to the buildings that Alexander saw when he con-
sulted the god. They are purely Egyptian in style, with
no trace of Greek influence. They resemble the small
Theban temples, with a cell flanked by two secondary
pieces for the goddess-wife and the god-son ; perhaps it
comprised a hypostyle hall, a pronaos and a pylon, but
those elements have disappeared, or travellers have been
unable to find any trace of them. The divinities there
are those of the Theban Ennead, Amonra, his wife,
Maout, Shou, and Tafnouit with the lioness's head,
Gabou, the earth, Nouit, the heaven. The formulas
which cover the walls are borrowed from the oldest
books in the world, those the text of which is engraved in
the vaults of the Pyramids, and the composition of which
had already been long finished when Menes, the first
king, ascended the throne. The chambers in which we
read them are those in which funerary worship was rend-
ered to the prince as to the dead forms of Amonrd. When
Alexander dismounted before the door of the sanctuary,
he found himself in actual Egypt, and the description
given by historians of his entry is of a purely Egyptian
ceremony. The divine emblem emerged from his naos to
receive him, and spoke to him as he was accustomed to
speak to his Pharaohs: **Come, son of my loins, who
loves me so that I give thee the royalty of Ra, and the
royalty of Horus." To these commonplace salutations
he added the sacramental promises: ** I give thee
valiance, I give thee to hold all countries and all religions
under thy feet; I give thee to strike all the peoples
united together with thy arm." The litany may be pro-
longed at will, and if these are not the terms of the dis-
course heard by Alexander, they certainly give the sense
of it; the meaning it pleased him to attribute to them
THE OASIS OF AMMON 253
for the realization of his projects of universal power are
ell known.
I do not know if the excavations will ever permit us
L determine the exact spot where the conqueror and the
god so politely contemplated each other face to face. It
would seem that in a country so cut off from the rest of
humanity the monuments of the past would be likely
to be more completely preserved than elsewhere; even
if whole buildings are no longer to be found, we ought
to find the pieces of which they were formed scattered
over the ground. But the inhabitants of Siouah have suc-
ceeded in almost entirely destroying their temples. They
have not torn them down in order to make huts of the
fragments, as is so often the case on the banks of the
Nile; but they regard them as the work of magicians
who once ruled the ancient world, and the eagerness
manifested by Europeans in exploring the ruins con-
firms them in their belief. The blocks covered with
strange pictures are not what they seem to be; they
are so many ingots of pure gold, disguised by the
virtue of a very ancient spell, and he who knows how
to remove the spell would grow as rich as he pleased.
As soon as a piece of a wall or an isolated stone is seen
sticking out of the ground, and yields a metallic sound
when knocked, the people of the Oasis break it into
small pieces in hope of exorcising the spell; although
they are always disappointed, they are never tired of
trying again. During the excavations this year, they
were seen hovering about with their hammers, and how-
^fcver carefully they are watched it is to be feared that
^■hey will soon destroy the pillars and the pieces of walls
|B-ecently brought to light. The spot is too long a
Hjourney through the desert from Cairo for it to be pro-
tected in any efficient manner, and the documents it
conceals are virtually at the mercy of a handful of
greedy and superstitious savages.
5"
5, -K"^ ^
XXXV
ON THE REPRODUCTION OF EGYPTIAN BAS-RELIEFS ^
Many artists are inclined to believe that it is easy to
make good copies of the Egyptian bas-reliefs. The par-
ticular method of presenting figures of men and animals
must of course be carefully studied if they are to be
accurately transcribed, but, taken all together, they
seem to present simple lines, empty surfaces, cleanly cut
silhouettes, unsymmetrical and awkward action : it only
needs a little attention and a vast deal of patience. The
copyist after making his sketch works it over in the
details, carefully accentuating all that constitutes the
special characteristics of Egyptian art in his eyes, the
eyes and chest full front, the face and torso in profile,
the arms and legs alike without apparent distinction
between the right and left, the gait heavy, the gesture
angular. Most often he is satisfied with the result, and
is pleased with himself for having grasped the physi-
ognomy of his model. Some, however, lose that illusion
as they proceed, and before they have finished perceive
that, where they thought to make a faithful copy, they
have only produced a caricature.
The peculiar properties of the bas-reliefs are soon
revealed to any one who examines them with close
attention, and he then almost despairs of ever repro-
ducing them adequately by ordinary means. The line
which encircles the bodies with so precise a contour is
* Die Mastaba des Gem-fti-kai. Edited, in collaboration with
A. E. P. Weigall, by Friedrich-Wilhelm von Bissing. Berlin, 1905.
254
REPRODUCTION OF BAS-RELIEFS 255
lot stiff and inflexible in its whole length as it appears
It a first glance, but it undulates, swells out, tapers off,
jinks down according to the structure of the limbs it
bounds, and the action that animates them. The flat
parts it defines contain not only a summary indication
of the anatomy and of the flesh surfaces, but the place
of the muscles is marked by such minute excrescences
and hollows that we marvel how the ancient sculptor
could produce them with the rude tools at his disposal. It
required the suppleness of the white limestone of Tourah
to enable them to work in a relief some ten-thousandth
part of an inch high, a thing the modern pen, pencil,
or brush is impotent to transcribe exactly on paper.
Prisse d'Avennes, in his History of Egyptian Arty has
sometimes very happily imitated the suppleness and
elegance of the general form; he almost always sup-
pressed the work of the chisel between the enveloping
lines and the slight and transparent shadows which
resulted from them. Lepsius, or rather Weiden-
bach who drew for Lepsius, did even less than Prisse
d*Avennes. By observing and sketching the walls of the
tombs of Memphis he evolved for himself an Egyptian
style of agreeable aspect and correct proportions which
honestly corresponded with the average human and
animal types most frequently used near the Pyramids.
He guilelessly employed them through the enormous
volumes of the Denkmaeler, without paying any heed
to the innumerable varieties of execution offered by the
lonuments at successive periods of their history, and
Jven at the same epoch in different localities. His so-
called facsimiles, to speak the truth, are merely groups
>f patterns in which the individual characteristics of
ich piece has disappeared. The archaeological detail is
scrupulously registered, as well as the modifications that
"arise in costume, armament, furniture, domestic or in-
dustrial implements; but everything connected with
256 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
artistic detail is wanting, and we cannot distinguish
from the touch what belongs to the most ancient epochs,
or to the Said age. It can be easily imagined how this
has misled students who tried to appreciate Egyptian
art by what they could learn of it without leaving their
own rooms, and then set to work to write its history.
It has spoiled the judgment of two or three generations ;
they attributed the monotony they found in the repro-
ductions to the originals, and for half a century Egypt
was convicted of possessing a fixed art lacking personal
inspiration or variety of handling.
Present day Egyptologists have means at their com-
mand which brings the reality much closer to them.
Bissing has made use of heliogravure for his reproduc-
tions of some of the tombs of Sakkarah, and if he found
the work rather expensive, the faithfulness of the pic-
tures is so striking that the extra cost is amply repaid.
I do not mean that it is absolutely perfect, nor that
fault is not to be found in certain places. The tint
employed is sometimes rather dark, and the printing-off
heavy ; here and there the ink has thickened the figures,
and blurred the contours. Those faults are almost
inevitable in books that are not exclusively editions de
luxe, and intended only for collectors; they are rare in
the copy I have before me, and do not perhaps exist in
other copies. In any case, taken as a whole, the volume
is excellent, and those who look through it will almost
feel that they have the document itself in front of them.
They will find not only the general outline of figures
and objects, but all the most delicate marks of the
chisel with the play of light and shade due to them.
Each of the men, and of the animals, perhaps in a
higher degree, has its peculiar physiognomy which is
stated in a few rapid strokes. We see in one of the
pictures tame hyaenas, who are being fattened up
with food apparently little to their liking : they are
REPRODUCTION OF BAS-RELIEFS 257
bound, lying on their backs, their four legs in the
air; their attitude is always the same, but the manner
in which they accept their portion differs everywhere.
Elsewhere ducks and geese undergo a similar trial,
and they walk about to recover their equilibrium.
The sculptor well knew the peculiarities of each sex,
and we can still distinguish his geese and his ganders
by the carriage of the head or the shape of the body;
they express their feelings, and their joy at having done
with the uncomfortable business by wagging the tail,
by grimaces, undulations of the neck, holding out the
beak and ruffling the feathers. In every plate we
find varieties of pose, of figures, of human or animal
expression that the pencil failed to reproduce, but which
the sun has fixed on the film that transferred them to
the copper; and the copper has delivered them to the
paper just as the stone received them from the hands of
the skilful workman five thousand years ago. It is
almost the wall itself which is before us, with its records
passing before our eyes ; it is all there with the pictures,
the grain of the limestone, the polishings of the chisel,
the sculptor's corrections, and also his faults where,
distracted probably by the conversation of one of his
companions, he let the chisel slip or gave too hard a
blow with the hammer. Any one who has been in the
studio of a modern craftsman and watched him at work,
will at once discern the hand of the ancient sculptor in
the heliogravure, as in the stone.
The superiority of the new method is especially seen
in the large figures. Bissing has divided over Plates
XX and XXI the full-length portrait of Kemnikai. I
am sorry that the format of the volume did not permit
him to give the whole figure in one plate, because the
effect would then have been more striking. But the
heliogravure, even so divided, gives a totally different
impression from an ordinary drawing. Kemnikai is
17
258 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
standing, the legs a little apart, the body in repose ; he
holds his long staff of authority obliquely, the point
against the ground and the right hand open on the
knob, while the left hand firmly grasps the centre. He
looks straight before him at a scene of cultivation which
is destroyed, but which we can easily reconstruct in
imagination, ploughing, sowing, harvest, transport and
threshing of the grain : his wife, a little figure behind
him, accompanies him, and according to custom puts
her arm round his leg. Any one who has looked
through an illustrated book on Egypt knows the motif,
but what they do not suspect, at least if they have not
lived in the country, is the manner, delicate and strong
at the same time, in which the artists of Memphis
treated it. Bissing's two plates will teach them, if they
take the trouble to examine them carefully ; the silhouette
is surrounded with one line drawn on the stone with a
sureness and also with a freedom of touch that never
fails for a moment. The old sculptor has imperceptibly
raised the background all along the line in order to
accentuate the relief, but it is so subtly done that great
attention is required to discover it. The figure, al-
though applied almost flat on the stone, is by that means
placed in a sort of atmosphere which gives more round-
ness to the contours than would have been thought
possible with a relief so low as that of the Egyptians.
The interior detail presents a combination of sharp and
modelled lines, almost indiscernible, that facsimiles in
drawing usually neglect; the shapes of the individual
elements of the face, the eyes, nose, mouth, chin, are
brought out by means of sharp edges, but the supple-
ness of the muscles and flesh is expressed by soft strokes
running one into the other which correct any hardness
there may be in the design. A technique, full of both
strength and delicacy, appears everywhere on the chest,
arms, and legs, surprising to those who make the ao
h5
»
REPRODUCTION OF BAS-RELIEFS 259
laintance of the originals of Egyptian art only after
ing familiar with them in the ordinary collections of
ints and engravings.
Bissing intends to make similar reproductions of
several of the tombs of Sakkarah. When he has
finished his work archaeologists and historians will owe
him much ; but artists will owe him more, for he will
have supplied them with accurate documents in which
they can study almost as if at first hand the bas-reliefs of
the tombs, so important a branch of sculpture in the time
of the Pyramids. The acquisition of complete mastabas
by the museums, like that installed in the Louvre in
1904, provided them with a first point of vantage, but
the mastaba, valuable as it is, did not reveal the wealth
of motifsy and the variety of workmanship to be found
in the necropolises of Memphis. If religious dogma
compelled its contemporaries to decorate their funerary
chapels in a manner always identical in regard to its
principal lines, it left them free to combine and develop
the themes according to taste and to the space to be
filled. In every generation there were at least a dozen
independent studios, each with its own teaching,
methods, and way of handling the subjects. Books like
that of Bissing and of others who will follow his ex-
ample, help us to realize those personal traditions.
Such volumes will aid in removing the prejudice that
prevents many who are interested in antiquity from
^llowing Egyptian art its just value.
I
XXXVI
THE TREASURE OF TOUKH-EL-GARMOUS
A DONKEY beaten by its fellah was trotting past the
ruins of Toukh-el-Garmous. He hit against a large vase
buried in the dust and smashed it with the blow. A
few pieces of gold thrown up from the debris danced
merrily in the sun. The fellah, seeing them, blessed
Allah, and dismounted. The ass shook his ears,
stretched his neck, snorted, and then seeing nothing
to eat in the neighbourhood, half drowsed, his eye
dimmed with a distant vision of fresh water, green
clover, and chopped straw. But the fellah wasted no
time in idle reverie, and disinterred handfuls of wonder-
ful things, chased dishes and vases, chafing-dishes,
censers, necklaces and bracelets, gold and silver coins,
a complete treasury. He made a rapid calculation that
by the tariff at which tourists purchased antiquities there
would be over ;^ 1,200, and he resolved that no one be-
sides himself should reap the benefit. He distributed
the objects about his person in the mysterious pockets
hidden in the folds of the peasants* cloaks, and spurred
his donkey along the road to the village looking as if
nothing had happened. The ruins had seemed deserted,
but the most desolate corners of Egypt are continually
haunted by prying eyes which nothing escapes. When
the man entered his house, his right-hand neighbour
already knew of the find, his left-hand neighbour was
not ignorant of it, and both claimed their share of the
prize. A quarrel ensued. The affair was noised abroad,
260
'REASURE OF TOUKH-EL^GARMOUS 261
le local inspector, Mohammed Effendi Ch^ban, warned
>y the ghafir of the place, carried off half of the jewels;
r. Carter, inspector-in-chief of the province, seized the
jmainder; and that is how a donkey's kick and the
luarrel of three fellahs enriched our museum with
[valuable metal-work.
The collection falls into two series, one Egyptian
conception and execution, the other Greek. The
Igyptian objects number about twenty, and are mostly
in silver, and were probably the property of a god or of
some private individual of wealth. We have not been
able to make a complete inventory. The metal is so
much corroded that many of the objects can neither be
cleaned nor separated. Some of the conglomerations of
fragments resisted all our attempts at separation, and we
do not yet know if they represent several pieces or only
one. Others have been separated, and although en-
crusted with the oxide in places, it is quite possible to
distinguish the decoration. It is very rich and of a
type already familiar to us elsewhere; there are, for
instance, half-a-dozen deep cups, the bulging part
decorated with long petals planted in a central rosette,
ike the fine vases discovered at Thmuis thirty years ago
»y Emile Brugsch and exhibited in one of the rooms of
le Cairo Museum. Ten cups show Egyptian motif Sy
Hied here and there to Greek ones; at least once the
icanthus is joined with the usual blossoms. The com-
)sition varies greatly; on some it is lighter and more
Restrained, on others heavier and of a less sure taste.
|t must be admitted, however, that the composition is
generally admirable, and justifies the reputation the
Egyptian metal-workers hold among us for their skill,
chiefly on the faith of reproductions. Nothing is finer than
two little incense-burners we have been able to restore.
The lower portion, the altar, is round, fluted lengthways,
and set on three feet of a lion or on three fore-parts of a
262 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
female sphinx. The covers are egg-shaped domes sur-
mounted by a cock. One of them is divided into two
series of open flowers alternating with buds ; the upper
part is ornamented with lotus sepals, and the incense-
smoke escapes through the openings between the lotuses.
The cover of the second has two bands, one of winged
monsters with lions* bodies, the other of grimacing
masks borrowed from the god Bisou; above them two
garlands of flowers surround the dome, skilfully pierced
to let the smoke escape.
The Greek series comprises only a few silver pieces,
but among them is one masterpiece. It is a rhyton, a
drinking-horn, the point of which is plunged into the
front part of a griffin *s body. The monster*s right paw
is stretched out, the left is bent under him, both wings are
spread, and the neck is inflated with vigorous action ; the
boldness of the design is only surpassed by the delicacy
of its execution. The gold jewellery is of equally fine
workmanship. The pieces are few in number, but in
such good preservation, and so clean, that we can appre-
ciate their delicacy. In general aspect and in the detail
there is a resemblance to the admirable jewels of the
fourth century which were discovered in Southern
Russia; if we did not know their Egyptian origin we
should be tempted to believe that these specimens came
from some Crimean tomb. The chain is a supple, solid
curb, ending in heads of Persian griffins. The two
pairs of bracelets are each of a different model. In one,
the circle is a twisted braid of two strands, the extremities
of which are also formed of two griffins* heads. In the
other, it is a plain ring ending in two busts of female
sphinxes, the paws stretched out, the wings folded be-
hind the head; the hair is dressed in the same way as
it is on the medals of several queens of the Ptolemy
family. The fifth bracelet is a serpent, a coiled uraeus
with head erect and inflated neck, and has no value be-
A Gold Bracelet from the Find of Toukh el Garmous.
page 262.
'REASURE OF TOUKH-EL-GARMOUS 263
yond the metal ; but the sixth is one of the most beauti-
ful, if not the most beautiful, piece of its kind which has
been dug out of the ground these last years. The circle
is of solid gold, flat on the inner, rounded on the outer
side. It is ornamented on the front with a large filigree
knot composed of spirals and flowerets of charming
fancy. A tiny figure of a naked Eros rises in high
relief in the middle of the flowers between the folds of
the knot ; his little wings flutter at each side of his head,
and he brandishes a patera in his right hand. We
might try to describe the motif exactly, and make an
inventory of its elements, but what words can scarcely
depict, the goldsmith's art has perfectly interpreted.
Only a photograph enlarged to twice the size of the
original could reproduce its grace of form and wealth of
ornament.
It is evident that the owner of so many different objects
hid them in an earthen vessel under the ground in order
to ward off troublesome questions. Did he do it at the
time of a foreign invasion or of a civil war? All the
gold coins we found, to the number of 108, and the silver
ones we have cleaned, are of the time of Ptolemy, son of
Lagos, and show as date of the interment the last years
of his reign, or the first years of his successor Ptolemy
Philadelphus. At that period there were neither in-
|vasions nor rebellions which would have troubled the
'centre of the Delta and have compelled the inhabitants
hurriedly to conceal their valuables. It would not be
the same if we went on two or three generations, under
Ptolemy IV or Ptolemy V, for the revolt of Lycopolis,
which is referred to in the Rosetta Stone, would have been
a sufficient reason. But the nature of the objects so
safely stowed away suggests a different solution. Some
are personal jewels, bracelets or chains, others are incom-
plete objects which might have belonged to a private
house or a temple, some belong to the things used in
264 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
religious ceremonials, others are amulets or little gold
images of Egyptian gods; it is neither wholly a god's
credence-table, nor a private individual's jewel-box, but
a little of each. In addition, the greater part of the
coins are as fresh as if they had just come from the mint,
and cannot have been much in circulation before they
were buried. Those circumstances lead me to suspect
that the last owner had perhaps no very authentic rights
to the possession of the treasure. There was robbery in
Grecian Egypt as well as in Pharaonic Egypt, and if
the inhabitants of Thebes felt no remorse in despoiling
the dead in their cemeteries, Pharaohs included,^ the
people of the Delta had no scruples in plundering
the living. The contents of the jar look to me like
the booty a professional thief might accumulate in the
exercise of his calling. After many successful depre-
dations on the property of his neighbours, he wished to
hide the wealth, the exhibition of which would have
compromised him, indeed, he would have acted in pre-
cisely the same way as the fellah of our day who buries
his guineas. Five times out of ten the treasure thus
hidden is lost for the owner's heirs. As he has not more
confidence in his own people than in strangers, he keeps
his secret as long as he feels in health, and only reveals
it to his wife and children when he is on the point of
death; often when the end comes suddenly, leisure or
strength is lacking, and he passes away without reveal-
ing the hiding-place of the treasure. They search for it
as best they can, but, lacking the necessary information,
they rarely succeed in finding it. The earth faithfully
keeps it, and sometimes centuries pass before a chance
brings it to light.
It remains for us to clean and to show to advantage
the objects it has yielded to us. The task will not be
easy, and in more than one case our efforts will not be
1 Cf. Chapter XXXIII.
i
REASURE OF TOUKH-EL^GARMOUS 265
successful. Silver, unlike gold, does not resist time;
it changes by contact with nitrous dust, and when the
oxide bites deeply it is all up with it. We know several
pieces that would perish if we touched them; we must
leave them as they are and let them end by destroying
themselves. The greater part will be better able to bear
the particular trials they will have to undergo, but I can-
not affirm that they will have recovered their pristine
splendour even in one or two years. The general mass,
however, will be in a sufficiently good condition to enable
visitors to the museum to judge the quality of the work,
unhampered in their study by earthy gangues, or thick
coats of oxide.
XXXVII
A NEW TREATISE ON EGYPTIAN MEDICINE
Medical books are numerous in Egypt. Greek and
Latin authors affirmed it, and later times have proved the
truth of their declarations. There are fragments of
several medical treatises at Berlin, London, Paris, more
than one complete manuscript at Leipzig, and the Uni-
versity of California has just acquired another. While
Professor Reisner was carrying on excavations on its
behalf, at the expense of Mrs. Hearst, near Deir-Ballas,
during the early months of 1901, he had the opportunity
of doing a service to one of the landowners of the village :
he authorized him to take, without cost, the sehakhj the
nitrous earth used for manuring the land, from the little
mounds lately excavated. The fellah, wishing to show
his gratitude, remembered that two years before he had
found an earthen pot, and in the pot a large papyrus roll.
He wrapped it in a fold of his turban, and, having
brought it to the Americans, accepted the modest price
they offered him without bargaining, as he would have
been certain to do had he not been bound by gratitude.
The papyrus did not long remain useless in its pur-
chaser's hands; it was unrolled, photographed, repro-
duced in phototype, and the reproduction, provided with
a short introduction and a copious index of words used in
the text, was sold.^ The method of publication is almost
* George A. Reisner : T/ie Hearst Medical Papyrus^ hieratic text in
seventeen facsimile Plates in collotype, with Introduction and Vocabu-
lary (part of the University of California publications, Egyptian
Archceology^ Vol. i). Leipzig, 1905.
266
p
TREATISE ON EGYPTIAN MEDICINE 267
the same as that employed by Ebers, and I do not know
a better. The document is now accessible to Egyptolo-
gists; it is for them to study it and translate it without
delay for the benefit of historians of medicine.
It will be understood that a substance as fragile as
papyrus is not improved by being jolted for several miles
in the folds of a turban. The last three pages, which
were on the outer side, and formed, as it were, the cover
of the roll, suffered severely during the journey from
the Arab village to the American camp. Further, the
manuscript had been torn about the middle by one of
its ancient owners ; all the first pages are missing, as well
as a good third of the lines on the first of those preserved
to us. Only a half of the contents has reached us, but
the damage is less serious than might at first be
imagined. It did not contain a continuous treatise on
fixed points of medicine ; all the way through the chapters
are arranged almost without method, and are sufficiently
independent, so that knowledge of one is not indispens-
able for understanding the others. Instructions for the
massage of painful places follow recipes for purgatives,
then come remedies to try in cases of fracture, abscesses
or inflamed pimples, maladies of the stomach, heart, or
bladder, wounds on the toes or hands, everywhere inter-
spersed with prayers and incantations. Diseases, as we
know, were caused by the anger of a god, or by the pre-
sence in the suffering limbs of one or more evil beings,
[enii, spectres, ghouls, vampires, spirits of the dead,
.emedies could cure or mitigate the outward ills, but the
lisease itself could not be cured as long as the evil spirit
remained an inmate of the body; only incantations could
ixpel it, and the doctor would have been of little use to
lis patients if he had not proved as expert in exorcisms
IS in formulas of pharmacy. The pages that have dis-
lappeared can scarcely have differed greatly from the
pages saved, and certainly included the same proportion
268 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
of auxiliary magic as of medicaments. We have pos-
sibly missed some prescriptions so far unknown, the
eccentric composition of which would have shown us
once again the infinite resources of the Egyptian doc-
tors for relieving their patients. But it is unlikely that
we have lost any exposition of general theories, which
would tell us their ideas concerning the human body and
its constitution, or concerning the nature of the diseases
which prevailed on the banks of the Nile.
The writing is of the same type as that of the Ebers
Papyrus, but it is more rapid, and less well formed; it
seems to me characteristic of the later rather than of the
earlier time of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The manuscript
probably belonged to a doctor established in the small,
ancient town to which Deir-Ballas has succeeded, but it
does not contain the original work of the man who wrote
it. Like all the medical papyri that have come down to
us, it is a copy of an older copy, and the composition
of the text goes back to distant historical epochs. The
greater number of the diseases and prescriptions are
already mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus; but the classifi-
cation often differs, and the composition is not always
the same. There is a community of sources in the works,
but the compilers to whom we owe them did not think
themselves obliged to reproduce servilely the documents
before them. The analysis of the Ebers Papyrus and of
the Reisner Papyrus tends to prove that there were, at a
fairly early period in Egypt, a quantity of aphorisms, or
of empirical prescriptions, in favour with the priests of
the temple and with the ordinary people. The elements
were gradually grouped together, and in the end formed
repertories of somewhat local interest, which were
identical, if not in form, at least in matter. Their com-
position or invention was attributed sometimes to the
gods, sometimes to the oldest dynasties of kings, and
that origin gave them universal authority. The reper-
h
TREATISE ON EGYPTIAN MEDICINE 269
tories of different districts were combined, and collections
like the Berlin Papyrus, the Ebers Papyrus, and the
Hearst Papyrus, were the result of the juxtaposition.
They were veritable medical compendiums for the use of
doctors who added notes of their own here and there.
One of the owners of the Ebers Papyrus had occasion
to try several of his most advantageous prescriptions on
his patients, and when they were successful he wrote
good in the margin by each, for the instruction of his
successors and the edification of posterity.
It is difficult to discover exactly of what the greater
part of the medicaments consisted. The names of plants,
minerals, animals, natural or manufactured objects, that
enter into their composition, can seldom be identified
with the substances they signify, and in many cases, if
we could transliterate the Egyptian terms, we are in-
capable of translating them. When by chance we know
all the ingredients, the formula generally belongs to the
category of what we call old wives* remedies. There
figure in them milk, saliva, urine, excrements, worms,
insects, horn, gall, the whole contents of popular phar-
macy. As a matter of fact, the Greek and Roman
physicians, and the physicians of the Middle Ages, used
no other, and it would be easy to turn the medley into
ridicule, but in many cases there was a serious reason for
the use of the substances, and the prescriptions, which
[seem so grotesque to us, cured the patient. It is cer-
[tainly less disagreeable to apply ammonia, or medica-
iments made with ammonia, where the Egyptians pre-
;ribed urine, or the excrements of certain animals, but
|the results were the same, and the ammonia imprisoned
jin those repugnant substances acted in exactly the same
[manner as if it had been chemically prepared ; it may be
;that, mingled with organic substances, its action was
less harsh than it is in the case of the pure ammonia of
[pur laboratories. At first experiments were made with
270 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
anything that came to hand, then, in time, what had not
produced good results was eliminated, and only what
seemed to have accomplished a cure was retained. The
strictly empirical selection left a residue of remedies for
each disease, nearly equal in value, so that they were
used in turn until one of them produced the desired effect.
If we examine the ingredients, we find that all contain
a more or less considerable quantity of some active ele-
ment that modern physicians often recommend in similar
cases. At base it was a sole remedy that the Egyptians
administered, disguised through various vehicles, when
they desired to try wholly different remedies. Their
combinations, which put forward the same elements as
those used by our practitioners, must, in many cases,
have been equally successful. There, as in so many
points, the progress of modern science consists rather in
simplifying the drugs of the ancient pharmacopoeia, and
in making them less repugnant, than in substituting new
ones.
However extraordinary it appears, we should resign
ourselves to believing that this strange science was seri-
ous, and that it worked efficaciously. As neither the
climate of the country nor the conditions of life there
have changed since the most distant epochs, we can
easily judge by the diseases that prevail now what were
those of former ages. Ophthalmia, dysentery, affections
of the chest and stomach, are all mentioned in Reisner's
Papyrus, but it is not easy to fit the modern term to the
ancient one. The doctors have not always perceived the
unity of the disease under the different accidents by
which it manifests itself, according to the temperament
of the patient, and very often individual variations, or
successive periods of one disease, are regarded as inde-
pendent maladies. On the other hand, they confuse in
one concept diseases which our contemporaries have
learned carefully to separate. Thus they had two or
TREATISE ON EGYPTIAN MEDICINE 271
three names where we have only one, or only one where
we have two or three. We must therefore be content to
follow their example, and not insist on exactly defining
the nature of the disease for which they prescribe.
Reisner has been careful not to venture on such difficult
ground, and neither in his Introduction nor in his Voca-
bulary has he risked translating the Egyptian terms by
precise equivalents in English, or in any other modern
tongue, and no one will blame him. He could not do
alone what requires the co-operation of at least two
persons, an Egyptologist and a physician who is past
master in the science of the ancients.
XXXVIII
THE COW OF DEIR EL-BAHARI
For about five months there has been nothing talked
of in Egypt but a marvellous cow, the like of which has
never before been seen. She is of a rare colour, of per-
fect purity of form, intelligent expression, graceful, and
an excellent milker to boot. She was a native of
Thebes, but has just been brought to Cairo, where she
has been the rage for six weeks. She is of yellow sand-
stone, is named Hathor, and is more than 3000 years
old, a very respectable age even for an Egyptian cow.
Naville discovered her at Deir El-Bahari, February 7,
1906, in the course of the excavations he has directed for
three years for the Egypt Exploration Fund, The work-
men had just finished removing the debris from one of the
mounds which separate the ruined pyramid of Montou-
hotpou V from the trenches dug by Mariette along the
mountain, when at two o'clock in the afternoon a heap
of sand fell down, and revealed a construction of wrought
stone. Informed by the reis, he went immediately to
the spot, and saw the beginning of a vault; a cow's head
was outlined beneath in the gloom, and looked out curi-
ously through the opening. A few hours' work sufficed
to bring the monument to view. It was a low construc-
tion built in a hollow of the rock with slabs of sculptured
and painted sandstone. The semicircular ceiling did not
present the usual regular vault with converging key-
stones and surfaces ; it was composed of a double row of
bent blocks cut in quarters of a circle and buttressed one
272
¥
THE COW OF DEIr EL-BAHARI 273
against the other at their upper end. It was painted dark
blue, with yellow, five-pointed stars scattered over it to
represent the sky. The three vertical partitions were
decorated with religious scenes. At the end Thoutmosis
III was praying before the Theban Amon, and on the
sides, before Hathor, woman and cow. My first impulse
was to leave it as it was at the place where Naville had
dug it out, but it would have put too great a temptation
in the way of dealers in antiquities. Doubtless the cow
was too heavy for them to have removed as a whole, but
it would not have been difficult for them to detach the
head and to carry it off in the night in spite of the vigil-
ance of the ghafirs, or, indeed, with their complicity.
There are always unscrupulous collectors ready to pay a
high price for a stolen object provided they thought it
had artistic or archaeological value, and with the honest
brokers of Louxor the certainty of gaining hundreds of
pounds compensates largely for the petty annoyance of
paying a few piastres by way of fine, or of undergoing a
week's imprisonment if they are caught in the act. The
only efficient way of saving the monument was to send
it to Cairo. I entrusted the work to M. Baraize, one of
our engineers, who carried it out extremely well ; in less
than three weeks the chapel was pulled to pieces, the cow
packed, and the cases transported by railway. The
chapel is now rebuilt in one of the rooms of the Cairo
Museum, but the goddess is not shut up as she was at
'hebes. She stands at the entrance, the body in the full
^ht, the hinder-part slightly under the vault ; she comes
>rth from her house and shows the whole of herself to
isitors, from the snout to the end of the tail.
She presents a strange mixture of mystical convention
id living reality. She is identical with the cows so often
Irawn in the tombs of Memphis or in the temples of
Thebes. She has a small head, a narrow chest, thin
shoulders, a long saddle-back, long thin legs, sinewy
18
274 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
thighs, prominent haunches, and somewhat slightly-
developed udders. Her coat is red brown, darker on the
back, lighter, of a fawn-colour almost becoming white,
under the belly; it is speckled with black spots, like
flowers with four petals, which we should consider arti-
ficial, if there were not animals of Soudanese origin in
the Egyptian herds of to-day that show similar markings.
The characteristic features are so precisely accentuated
that the race is not to be ignored : it is one of the Africans
recently studied by Lortet,^ and has nothing in common
with the Asiatic ox to which our European species are
allied. As she is no ordinary creature, but a goddess
of good family, she is adorned with emblems suitable
to her dignity. A solar disk shines between the horns,
flanked by two ostrich plumes. To right and left of her
fore-part a tuft of aquatic plants grow out of the plinth,
Beautiful lotuses, the open flowers and buds of which are
bent above the back of her neck and support her head-
dress. Two human figures lean against her. The first
stands in front of the group, his back against her chest,
his head under hers. The face is mutilated, but from
the uraeus of the crown and the stiff petticoat which falls
in a triangle over the knees, we guess the Pharaoh ; his
flesh is black and his hands are extended in an attitude
of submission, as if avowing himself the humble servant
of Hathor. The second personage is also a Pharaoh,
but his flesh is of the natural colour and he wears no
clothes; kneeling under the animal's belly, he presses
the teat and eternally drinks the divine milk. If we may
believe the cartouche engraved between the lotuses, the
two figures, the black and the red, would be the same
sovereign, Amenothes II of the XVIIIth Dynasty. But
in many cases the testimony of the name is insufficient
when it is isolated, and here it is weakened by the in-
scriptions on the walls. We have stated that the chapel
1 Cf. Chapter XXVIII.
THE COW OF DEtR EL-BAHARI 275
was built by Thoutmosis III; we see him accompanied
by his wives and two of his daughters. It would be
strange if the cow that he twice worships on the bas-
reliefs was not the one we possess. It is quite likely that
Amenothes II inscribed his name over the group which
belonged to his father.
The various elements were not arranged according
to the personal taste of the sculptor ; the place of each
was designed in advance by the exigencies of the religi-
ous dogma. Hathor, the lady of the heaven, was also,
by an association of ideas easily justifiable, the queen of
the dead, and without her aid there was risk of missing
happiness in the future life. She appeared before the
souls when escaping from the tomb after the funeral;
they took their way towards the west in order to enter
the other world. Her form on that occasion varied ac-
cording to the district. In the north the people con-
ceived her as one of the fine sycamores that grow in the
sand on the borders of the Libyan desert, green and thick
from the hidden waters sent by the infiltrations of the
Nile. The mysterious path that leads to the west
brought the doubles to its feet ; as soon as they appear,
the divine soul living in the trunk comes wholly or half
out of it, and offers them water in a vase, and bread on
a dish. If they accept her gifts, and they can scarcely
refuse them, they are at once recognized as her vassals,
and are no more permitted to return to the living, but the
realms of the world beyond are open to them. In the
Said, Hathor was a cow. She lived in a green marsh
situated on the lower slopes of the Libyan mountains;
each time a double came there she stretched her head
from between the lotuses and demanded its homage ; when
it was accorded her, she offered him her teat, the milk
from which impregnated him with eternal youth. The
i86th chapter of the Book of the Dead,^ sl great favourite
1 Das Thebanische Todtenbuch. ed. Naville, Vol. i.
276 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
with pious folk under the Second Theban Empire, initi-
ates us into that mystery, and the vignette that precedes
it gives a sketch of the scene as the Egyptians conceived
it : the yellow or red slopes of the mountains, the tufts
of aquatic plants, the cow in conference with the defunct.
The artist who executed our group had only to interpret
the vignette by means of the material proper to the
sculptor. He reduced the marsh to two small tufts
of lotuses, which frame the fore-part of the figure. He
expressed the two moments of the mystic act by the
pose of the two royal figures, and by the choice of their
attributes. The first wears the costume of the Pharaohs,
and has black flesh, and upright under the animal's
snout, faces the spectators. Amenothes H has only just
declared his oath of allegiance ; he is still, as his colour
indicates, the slave of death, but the goddess has received
him as one of her own, and presents him to the whole
world as her son. That formality accomplished, he slips
through the lotuses, kneels down, crushes the udder in
his hands, and puts his lips to it. That is the final rite
of the adoption. As he swallowed the first draughts of
milk, life flowed into him, and so the artist has repre-
sented him naked like a new-born infant, and with flesh
of a pink colour to denote the living.
Monuments on the subject of adoption and divine
nourishment are not as rare as people were pleased to
say they were at the time of this discovery. The Cairo
Museum possesses three that have been known for a long
time. Two of them are mutilated, and only fragments
remain, but the third, which is devoted to the memory of
the scribe Psammetichus, is rightly considered one of the
masterpieces of Said art. It is half life-size, and the
scribe only figures on it once, in front of the breast.
The execution is of unimaginable excellence; the artist
has manipulated the green basalt with as much ease and
precision as if it had been soft Tourah limestone ; the relief
i
The Shrine and Cow in the Museum at Cairo.
tee page 276.
THE COW OF DElR EL^BAHARl 277
of the body is delicate, the expression of the heads of
charming gentleness and serenity, and the piece deserves
all the praise it has received. But it loses very much
when confronted with that of Amenothes II. It is of the
Memphian school, and, like nearly all the products of that
school, the form has something forced and impersonal.
Hathor is there an artificial cow, of the type of the half-
abstract Egyptian cows which, in the eyes of the Memph-
ians, incarnates the ideal of the terrestrial or divine cow;
it is a studio work, the faultless rendering of an ordinary
pattern by a master craftsman. The new Hathor, on the
contrary, if conventional in many of the details, is nearer
nature than her Memphian sister. The royal studios of
Thebes, whence she came, like all those of Egypt, were
blindly obedient to the decrees of religion, and were
forbidden to modify in any way the types formed in the
course of ages to express visibly the concepts of popular
tradition or of theology ; but they tried to keep the expres-
fsion as near the living reality as the rites permitted. The
artist who modelled Hathor has preserved the grouping
of the parts and the arrangement of the emblems, but it
is an individual cow, reproduced probably from an
animal chosen from the sacred herd, and not an imag-
inary cow set up after a former model. Take away in
imagination — and it will not be very difficult — the mytho-
logical apparatus with which the artist was compelled to
surround her, the high head-dress, the tufts of lotus, the
two figures of Pharaoh, and what remains is a good
motherly creature, gentle, strong, vigorous, real. Look
at the healthy leanness of the flanks, and at the delicate
head ; the nostrils palpitate under the breath that inflates
them, the cheeks tremble, the eyes look into the distance
before them with a dreamy, honest expression. Neither
Greece nor Rome has produced anything like it; we
must go to the great sculptors of animals of our own
day to find an equally realistic piece of work.
XXXIX
THE TEMPLES OF THE SUN IN ARCHAIC EGYPT
More than forty years ago E. de Roug6 noticed a
strange hieroglyph in the inscriptions of the Memphian
age, a truncated pyramid surmounted by an obelisk : a
solar disk accompanied it, which sometimes seemed to
be balanced on the point of the obelisk, but more often
was more safely placed by one of its sides. The group
designated a temple of the Sun consecrated by the reign-
ing Pharaoh in his royal city. Exalted personages
boasted of holding the priesthood there, but is it to be
believed that the artist reproduced the figure of the
sanctuary with scrupulous exactitude? and that there
really were truncated pyramids with obelisks coming out
of them near the ordinary pyramids? or was it the
artificial union of elements dissociated in reality ? and did
the obelisk stand in front of its piece of pyramid instead
of on it? One winter's day in 1898 when Bissing was
showing Dorpfeld the necropolis of Abousir the idea
came to him that an excavation made deep down through
one of the Tells which border the plain might furnish a
solution of the problem. He could not carry on the
work on the ground as well as the work in the study im-
posed on him by his collaboration in our General Cata-
logue. So he gave the money, and entrusted the execu-
tion to some of his fellow-countrymen, Schaefer,
Thiersch, Rubensohn, and Borchardt. It meant three
campaigns between 1898 and 1901, and then, as he had
undertaken the expenses of the excavations, he was
equally prepared to undertake those of the printing.
278
H 2
^ ■'t-'
THE TEMPLES OF THE SUN 279
The first volume has appeared : it contains the history
of the discovery, the shifting of the ruins, the discus-
sion on the facts brought to light, and the various
attempts at restoration ;^ it is edited by Borchardt, who
is an architect by profession, and no one of us was better
equipped by his special studies to treat the technical
questions which arose in the course of the excavation.
And first, we must state once again that the engravers
have faithfully copied the objects they perceived around
them : the obelisk was on the pyramid and not by its
side. The Temple of Abousir was built on a platform of
dried bricks, which protected it from inundations, and
which reached to the first portions of the desert. It
consisted of a rectangular court, the great axis of which
runs from east to west, and the four sides of which are
enclosed by a thick brick wall. The pyramid which
partly covered the western half of the surface thus deter-
mined was not a classical pyramid like those of Gizeh,
but a solid block with its outer sides very near the per-
pendicular, similar to those of the pyramid of Meydoum.
It measures about 108 feet at the top by 138 at the base;
three of its sides are bare, without decoration or open-
ings; on the fourth and south side a door gave access
to the staircase which leads to the platform. There the
obelisk rises, or rather the brick facsimile of an im-
mense stone raised in form of a curtailed obelisk : it
was about iii feet high. The enclosure in front of the
two superimposed masses was bordered with chambers
in which provisions were stored, and in which the officiat-
ing priests lived with the material required for the
services. At the western extremity, near the foot of the
pyramid, an immense alabaster table for the votive
offerings spread over the ground in a sort of small square
courtyard, enclosed by low walls; the libations were
^ Das Re-Heiligthum des Koenigs Ne-woser-re {Rathures). Edited
by W. von Bissing. Vol. i. Der Bau^ by L. Borchardt. Berlin, 1905.
28o NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
poured there, and the viands, bread, vegetables, and
fruits which formed the material of the daily offering
were heaped up on it. The entrance door opened on to
"the middle of the east front. This is only a very sum-
mary description : plans and drawings are necessary for
all who would understand the disposition of the parts in
detail. What I have said is sufficient to prove how
greatly the edifice differs from the temples to which the
ruins of Theban Egypt have accustomed us. The Chal-
dsean Ziggourat presents something of the same appear-
ance, and if we desire an analogy in the modern world
we may point to the mosques of Touloun or of Hakem,
with their minarets and their courtyards surrounded by
arcades; in both cases, however, the resemblance is re-
mote, and it is wiser not to push the comparison too far.
A slope enclosed between two parapets formed com-
munication with the royal city. Pharaoh could pass
from his palace to the temple at any hour without having
more than a furlong to travel. The god, so the inscrip-
tions inform us, was Ra, the living Sun, the primitive
ancestor of the sovereigns of Egypt, the shining disk
that they hastened to rejoin after their death, and on
whose boat they ventured into the darkness of the night.
The obelisk served for sanctuary and idol at the same
time, and the pyramid formed a plinth of dimensions
suitable to its size. We are so accustomed to consider
the Egyptian gods as beings of flesh and blood, with the
body of a man or an animal, that when we find one of
them in the guise of an inanimate object, a stone or a
tree, we receive a shock of surprise. We cannot doubt,
however, that here the obelisk was the god himself, and
the obelisk, in its turn, appeared to be the culminating
point of the unhewn stone worshipped in very ancient
temples. The old religions of Egypt before the time of
the Pharaohs are as if hidden from our eyes by the
excrescences of the more matured rites derived from
THE TEMPLES OF THE SUN 281
them in th6 course of ages, and it is no easy matter for
us to unravel their meaning and semblance in those
earlier times. The obelisks placed in pairs at the doors
of the Theban temples express among other ideas the
concepts of generative power and fertility, which had
belonged to the raised stones from which they partly
emanated. They, in their turn, had acquired those
virtues for having formerly represented the shining sun,
but by what means had the souls of the ancients come
to see any similitude between two objects so dissimilar
as a block of unhewn stone and a globe of fire ? It was
not accurately known under the Vth Dynasty when king
Naousirriya built the temple of Abousir, and new dogmas
had gradually grown over the old ones and supplanted
them. It was not only the stone-sun that was wor-
shipped in its temple, it was the sun-star independent of
the stone, the master of heaven and earth, who vanished
in the evening to rise again anew in the morning, and
with whom the Pharaoh was associated in its triumphal
progress.
Can we be more exact and state what was the particular
nature of the sun worshipped here ? Yes, we can, thanks
to an unexpected discovery made by Borchardt outside
the temple along the south facade. He found there a
heap of small pieces of what seemed part of a wall, bent,
curved downwards, raised up, crossed athwart each other,
and it required no small ingenuity to distinguish the
parts of an enormous boat. And, strange as it may
seem, the Memphian architects had constructed a boat
of bricks, about ninety-six feet long, and Borchardt was
right in recognizing it as the image of one of the Boats
of the Sun. Ra, sailing on the celestial Nile required a
change of vessel at least twice during the twenty-four
hours; in the morning, in leaving the night, he sailed
aboard the Manazit, in the evening he was transported
on to the Samaktit. Borchardt, knowing the rules of
282 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
divine etiquette, as we all do, sought a second similar
boat on the other side of the temple, and not finding it
was a little disappointed. Afterwards he asked himself
whether the construction represented the Manazit or the
Samaktit, but he did not venture to decide the question
he had himself propounded. I think he might have done
so without rashness. The temple is situated on the left
bank of the Nile, the one where the sun sets. When the
god reached there after finishing his day's course it was
time to leave the morning boat and embark on that of
the evening. Need it be doubted that the little brick
construction was the Samaktit, the evening boat, which
awaited Ra? It results then, I think, that the temple
was consecrated more particularly to the setting sun,
and there were edifices built on the same plan in the
Memphian necropolis by the Pharaohs of the Vth and
Vlth Dynasties. We shall not be astonished if we
remember that their royal towns were always in the
neighbourhood of their funerary pyramids; from the
terraces of their palaces they could see the triangular
outline of the tomb in which they would ultimately rest.
Sons of Ra, and, like him, destined by the mystery of
their origin to vanish into the depths of the West, it was
natural that they should consecrate the principal temples
of their earthly residence to Ra, their father, and to Ra,
dying or dead, already master of the West.
Once again Egypt is revealed to us as the land of the
improbable. Familiar as we were with the paradoxical
turn of her thoughts and actions, could we have believed
her capable of constructing so rapid and light a thing
as a boat in heavy bricks, and anchoring it motionless in
the sand of the desert? But even there she shows her-
self consistent, and with pitiless logic develops a principle
she had put forth in very ancient times. The clear
intuition she then had of the unceasing destruction of
beings and things led her by reaction to seek means of
THE TEMPLES OF THE SUN 283
escaping annihilation. She dried and then mummified
the bodies, she replaced the perishable offerings of
meat or bread by offerings in wood or stone; in order
to sustain his soul she attributed to the dead multiple
bodies of granite or limestone that slaves like their
masters served and fed with alabaster geese and loaves !
Why, then, should she not assign the god imperish-
able boats of brick instead of boats of acacia wood that
a very few centuries would reduce to dust? It was
not the only advantage to be derived. Pharaoh dead,
his town was quickly depopulated, and soon only the
families vowed to the worship remained; next, for lack
of resources, the worship would stop or only be cele-
brated at long intervals. The material wore out, and
the wooden boat kept in the sanctuary for Ra's use fell
to pieces; then the brick boat took its place and con-
tinued its functions as long as a piece of the wall lasted.
That is one of the things, and not one of the least, that
we have learned from the excavations at Abousir :
Bissing will teach us more in his second volume.
XL
concerning a recent discovery of egyptian
goldsmiths' work
Representations of valuable metal-work and jewellery
are often found on the Egyptian bas-reliefs in the ruined
temples, as well as in the tombs. Judged by our modern
standard, the vases, perhaps, seem of odd shape, and
show signs of doubtful taste in a certain superfluity of
curve. But it must be acknowledged that the majority
are pure in outline, and the decorative designs almost
faultless in their grace and simplicity. The bulging part
of the vases is adorned with flowers, or geometrical
designs, while bands of plants, fish, birds, animals, and
human figures in various attitudes, encircle the neck.
The handles are of divers shapes, each unique in its
way, and always beautiful. One is formed by a large
lotus flower, which grows out of the side, and clings
with drooping head to the lip of the vase; another, by
the figures of two Asiatics, or negroes, who lean back on
(either side, isupporting the weight of the projecting rim ;
another, by a fox, which climbs up the top of the vase in
order to escape the pursuit of invisible hounds ; another,
by a goat standing on its hind-legs, its head bent over
the rim, as if inhaling with dilated nostrils the fumes
of the wine within. Inscriptions are engraved above
the objects, with details of their dimensions, which are
often extensive, and of the metals, gold, silver, electro,
and bronze, either enamelled or plain. The weight
of each article is considerable, and the value of the
284
EGYPTIAN GOLDSMITHS' WORK 285
material alone, as a rule, equals, if it does not exceed,
the artistic value of the object.
Such fine vases are now rarely to be found. The
crucible has devoured almost all the treasures of the
past, and the little that has escai>ed destruction only
faintly shadows forth the splendid pieces that must have
once existed. We have the flat cups from Thoutii at the
Louvre, the copper-gilt goblets from the tomb of Rakh-
miriya, the silver vessels at Cairo, the discovery at Tmai-
el-Amdid, and also the treasure found at Toukh-el-
Garmous, which probably belongs to the Said and Ptole-
maic period, and appears to have come under Greek
influence.^
In the Tells of Bubastis articles were found which date
back to the latter part of the XlXth Dynasty. They
were first brought to light by workmen employed in re-
pairing the railroad. The site is rich in antiquities, and,
when properly worked, produces marvellous results. One
man turned up, one after the other, two vases in perfect
preservation, one gold, the other silver, and also a quan-
tity of silver jewellery, which he endeavoured to hide
under the embankment with the aid of one of his com-
rades. They carried it away during the night, and sold
it to a dealer, who immediately informed one of his corre-
spondents at Cairo. We shou)d most certainly have
lost sight of the treasure but for the promptness of one
of our watchmen, who, witnessing the theft, but lacking
power to intervene, hastened with the information to the
local inspector, Mohammed Effendi Chaban, and to Mr.
Edgar, inspector-in-chief of the Delta. The booty was
taken from the receiver of stolen goods, and a law-suit
followed, which resulted in our favour. The possession
of the vases was granted to us, and the two workmen
sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
At the same time, Edgar continued investigations at
1 Cf. Chapter XXXVI.
286 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
the site of discovery, and soon more objects were re-
vealed. It seems that they were formerly encased in a
large clay jar baked hard by the sun, which had either
cracked under the accumulated weight of the debris, or
been smashed by a workman's pickaxe. The contents
were widely scattered, and only those that had been at the
bottom remained, jammed together by outside pressure
into a compact casing of metal and hardened earth. In
spite of very great care, the treasure could not be pre-
served in its entirety, and some pieces came into the
hands of an antiquary at Cairo, a gold strainer, the
neck of a finely chased gold vase, the fragments of three
or four silver dishes, and five or six polished silver
vases. Fortunately, the greater part fell to our share,
and is now exhibited in our cases : two gold pots and
a gold cup in perfect preservation, half-a-dozen polished
silver bowls broken into small pieces, of which only two
were in a fit condition to be repaired, a silver pitcher,
with gold handle and ornamentation, two beautiful gold
and lapis-lazuli bracelets, two gold necklaces set with
precious stones, a bar of solid silver, a few chased and
twisted silver leaves, probably detached from some object
destroyed, a few silver earrings and bracelets, and a
whole shopful of jewellery of inferior workmanship,
having nothing in common with that of the two gold
bracelets and the metal- work.
The collection was, in fact, composed of the mixed
products of many different periods. The silver bracelets
and earrings were of the type found in the last years of
the Roman Empire, or in the first of the Arabian domina-
tion. The earrings are plain rings, slightly oval in
shape, with a pendant of grain seeds strung together at
the bottom in threes or fours, or else placed in alternate
ones and twos. The bracelets consist of a round bar,
cut straight and ornamented at either end by coarsely
incised checker-work, and finished by two parallel lines.
EGYPTIAN GOLDSMITHS' WORK 287
In contrast to these, the gold and lapis-lazuli bracelets
bear the title of Ramses II, while the gold cups and
some of the goblets belonged either to Queen Taouosrit,
great-granddaughter of Ramses II, or to officers of her
household. The articles on which no inscription was to
be found resembled those so closely, that they doubtless
belonged to the same period, and probably came from
the same workshop.
Twenty centuries, more or less, elapse between the !wo
series, and it would be in vain to look for the causes
which brought them together, if the circumstances of their
discovery did not furnish us with a solution of the pro-
blem. The ancient Egyptian goldsmith, like his brother
of earlier times, supplied himself with stores of jewels
and vases, picked up in the ruined villages by fellahs
in search of sebakh. They were bought by weight,
and, while a few of the best-preserved specimens were
spared for future sale if the opportunity occurred, the
rest were broken up, and the pieces utilized in a form
more likely to meet the needs of current demand. It is
evident that this treasure, recently thrown by chance
across our path, formed part of the stock belonging to
a goldsmith in a small town. The vases and the gold
jewellery must have been procured from the fellahs for
the purpose of selling them to some collector of gold
plate, but he had already broken up and melted down
the silver dishes and vases in order to recast them into
earrings and bracelets. Judging by these specimens, the
goldsmith was not remarkably skilled in his profession,
and his customers decidedly not of exacting dispositions.
Perhaps he lived in a quarter occupied by unpretentious
people, who did not indulge in elaborate ornaments, or,
more probably, Bubastis was already a decaying town,
abandoned by the bulk of its wealthy population. The
goldsmith was probably killed, and his house destroyed,
in one of the wars which shed the blood of Egypt at the
288 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
commencement of the Arabian conquest. The shop,
with its treasures, was hidden beneath the subsidence of
the crumbling walls, and remained from that day until
this, inviolate and undisturbed.
The bracelets belonging to Ramses II are certainly
marvels of technique, but we possess superior specimens
in our museum among the collections from Thebes and
Dahchour. The skill of the Egyptian goldsmith has
been revealed to us by such innumerable examples that
it no longer succeeds in rousing our astonishment. All
that is really novel to us in the Bubastis collection is
what it has to teach us concerning the metal-work of the
age of the Ramses.
Only a short time ago, the question was still debated
if the infinite variety of vases depicted on the monuments
were of authentic origin, and if many of them had existed
anywhere except in the imagination of the artists com-
missioned to decorate the temples or tombs. It seemed
almost impossible that such prolific invention and inge-
nuity of design could have been realized in metal at so
early a date. It is now no longer doubted that all the
varieties portrayed were actually in existence. Draw-
ings, and many of them, would be required if I could
hope to demonstrate the remarkable combinations of
delicacy and strength to be found in these gold vases;
words by themselves are powerless to give any idea of
the reality. I must, however, try to describe, as briefly
as possible, the silver vase which is considered the most
valuable specimen in the collection. It does not measure,
perhaps, more than nine inches in height, and its shape
is one of the most familiar. I do not know anything
better to compare it with than an ordinary kettle of
medium size, without spout or cover. It is made of solid
silver, which long interment has covered with a coating
of earth and bluish oxide ; and, unluckily, it was broken
on one side by a workman's axe at the moment of dis-
EGYPTIAN GOLDSMITHS' WORK 289
covery. The bowl is separated from the neck by a hori-
zontal line of hieroglyphics, expressing messages of
cheer to the owner's double for a joyous existence in this
world and the next. The smooth surface is relieved by
an embossed design, which gives free rein to the play of
light and shadow. The rim of the neck has a garniture
of light gold, and below are four bands of human figures,
flowers, and animals, much of the detail of which is
obscured by dirt and oxide. Such features, however,
are by no means unique, and the chief novelty lies in
the handle, which was designed by the sculptor in a most
artistic manner. A goat, attracted by the fumes which
rose from the liquid within, had climbed the rise of the
vase, and, driven by an impulse of greediness, stands on
her hind-legs, with her head and fore-feet resting on the
gold rim. The action, cautious and fearless at the same
time, the extension of the spine and hind-quarters, and
the greedy expression of the head and muzzle, are re-
markable for their fidelity to nature, and show an accu-
racy of execution equal to the power of invention.
Seldom has a master craftsman worked in gold with a
more certain hand. It is a work for all time.
Moreover, it is typically Egyptian, without any trace
of foreign influence. For some years we have been
anxious to discover how much Egypt owed to the
contact of neighbouring countries. The Chaldaeans,
the Assyrians, the tribes of Asia Minor, the Greeks, each
predominated in their turn, and it seems more than pos-
sible that Egypt, torn between their rival claims, might
have lost all traces of her originality. As a matter of
fact, things happened in the ancient w^orld much as they
do to-day. Nations exchanged their artistic inspirations,
their methods of labour, and their industrial products,
and, guided by the hands of chance, each imposed his
ways upon the others during several generations. The
countries of the old East, each in their turn, felt the
19
290 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
influence of Chaldaea, of Egypt, of Mycenae, of Assyria,
and each left traces of those diverse modes, in greater or
less proportion, according to the vitality of their pecu-
liar genius. Like her contemporaries, Egypt underwent
those influences, but with the power of absorption native
to her, she neutralized the effect by a speedy process of
assimilation and elimination. Ramses III, after con-
tinual siege of the Syrian fortresses, desired to have one
built on the banks of the Nile, and the Pavilion at
Medinet-Habou was designed on the same lines. His
experiment does not, however, seem to have modified the
tendencies of the national architecture, and his example
produced no further imitations. That which is true in
a great art like architecture is not less apparent in indus-
trial arts, such as jewellery or metal-work. The spoil
brought home from many distant expeditions contained
thousands of specimens of a workmanship rare and novel
on the banks of the Nile. The Egyptians copied those
works, and drew inspiration from them, but as soon as
the first interest was evaporated they returned to the
traditional models. The few decorative motifs that en-
dured conformed to the customs of native art, and, before
a couple of generations had passed away, they could not
be distinguished from those of purely Egyptian design.
XLI
THE TOMB OF QUEEN tIyI
Two years ago, in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes,
Theodore Davis found a family of mummies lying peace-
fully at rest, surrounded by their funerary equipment.
They were the father and mother of Queen Tiyi.^ This
year he forced an entrance into the tomb of the queen
herself. It is situated at the corner of the ravine lead-
ing to Setoul I. The site is completely hidden by layers
of gravel and loose stones, and there is nothing to indi-
cate the presence of a tomb. Mr. Davis, however, still
faithful to his principle of leaving no corner unexplored,
no matter how discouraging in aspect, determined to
pursue his investigations, and good fortune again
rewarded the inquiring spirit which presides over his re-
searches. After some days of hard work, the regular
rectangle o! a pit was discernible upon the soil, then two
or three steps appeared, followed by a staircase open to
the sky, a door, a narrow passage, and a wall of rock-
work and beaten earth. The seals affixed by the guar-
dians, more than thirty centuries before, were still intact
on the lime-wash. They were broken on the 6th of
January, and, that obstacle removed, Mr. Davis threw
himself with renewed energy against a loosely piled
barrier of ashlars. Two panels of gilded wood,
1 Cf. Chapter XXXIII. The end of the present chapter has been
rewritten in order to embody the results of Dr. Elliot Smith's researches,
and the conjectures which they caU forth.
291
292 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
tarnished and worm-eaten, lay stretched across the
entrance; he would probably have broken them in
moving them. He preferred to avoid them, and to creep
down by the wall on the right, with his back to the roof,
his knees, and the front of his body, towards the angles
of the stones. When he reached the bottom, he found
that a fall of earth must have occurred at the moment of
the last obsequies; the outermost portions of the debrisy
falling into the chamber, filled it almost to the centre
of the vault.
A wire connected with the generating station that
supplied electric light to the royal syringes, had been
brought into the tomb, and, at the first ray that shone
forth, reflections of sparkling gold responded in every
direction. Mr. Davis might have thought himself
transported to one of the marvellous treasure caves of
the Arabian Nights, Gold shone on the ground, gold
on the walls, gold in the furthest corner where the coffin
leant up against the side, gold bright and polished as
if it had just come freshly beaten from the goldsmith's
hands, gold half-veiled by, and striving to free itself
from, the dust of time. It seemed as if all the gold of
ancient Egypt glittered and gleamed in that narrow
space. The two native workmen who accompanied
Mr. Davis, to render service in case of need, could
scarcely believe their eyes. They soon whispered a
couple of words to their comrades, and the news, flying
from mouth to mouth, speedily crossed the mountains
which divide Biban-el-molouk from Deir El-Bahari. It
increased in magnitude as it spread over the desert from
Assassif to Gournah, and from Gournah to Louxor. The
ingots of gold multiplied, the urns overflowed with
heavy coins, and the plaques and the vases, the arms,
and the massive statues had reached such alarming
numbers by nightfall, that it was necessary to give notice
to the police to prevent danger of an assault.
THE TOMB OF QUEEN TtYl 293
But looked at closely the result was sufficiently
mediocre. The coffin, which had appeared at first sight
to be a gold shell inlaid with enamel and precious stones,
proved on further investigation to be only covered with
gold-leaf, and the so-called enamels turned out to be
nothing more than coloured pebbles and paste of tinted
glass. The sledge on which the mummy had been
carried, although made as usual of wood, and coated
with stucco, was decorated with some fine bas-reliefs,
and a thin layer of gold-leaf. It had been disconnected
for introduction into the tomb, and the panels and sup-
ports carelessly deposited on the first clear space avail-
able, the boards in the centre of the vault, the supports
propped against the wall. Separated thus, they pre-
sented an extensive glittering surface, but the metal had
actually very little value. The object was, however,
unique in its kind, and would have made an interesting
addition to our museum if we had succeeded in trans-
porting it as it was, and in setting it up again there.
Unfortunately, the paste with which the gold-leaf was
attached to the stucco, and the stucco to the wood, had
evaporated, and the portions only held together from
force of habit. The moment they came in contact with
the outer air they were dislodged, and the decorations,
coming away in layers, crumbled into dust before the
very eyes of the artist who was copying them. Less
than a week after their discovery the panels were bare,
with the exception of those left undisturbed since the
day of the burial.
A picture was represented on one of the panels which
might have been borrowed from the tombs at El-
Amarna. King Khouniatonou and his mother Tiyi are
standing in adoration before their god. A solar disk
is suspended above the altar, and shoots forth in all
directions rays armed with open hands, some of which
play among the offerings, while others hold out the cross
294 NJ^W LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
of life to the king and queen. The inscription states
that Khouniatonou had built this sledge for his mother,
Queen Tiyi, and we should have been assured that the
human remains scattered on the ground close by were
those of the queen, if a legend engraved on another
panel had not attributed the possession to the king ; had
we strayed into the king's tomb unawares? However,
the lines of hieroglyphics traced on the tomb contained
the cartouche of the queen, and on a cursory examin-
ation the mummy certainly appeared to be that of a
woman. It was somewhat scantily swathed in two or
three wrappings of linen, fine in texture but very worn.
According to the usual custom they had chosen the
oldest garments in the wardrobe in which to dress the
corpse, and in order to atone in some way for this
excessive thrift, had concluded the toilet of the corpse
by binding round it a score or so of gold bands in the
form of a clumsy sheath. Poverty might be discern-
ible underneath, but above it was luxury incarnate. The
mummy had not resisted the slow decay of time, and
was nothing more than a residue of fibrous bones and
disconnected limbs, to which a little dried flesh still
adhered in places. The skull was enclosed in a casing
of gold, in the front of which the outline of the royal
uraeus appeared to project. On further investigation,
however, it was proved to be nothing more than gold-
leaf cut in the form of a vulture with outspread wings,
and bearing in its claws the seal of eternity. It was the
head-dress worn by the queen-mothers, but the em-
balmers, in fitting the body into the coffin, had care-
lessly adjusted it in a reverse position, with the beak
to the nape, and the tail to the face of the mummy.
The features had suffered comparatively little, and in
spite of the flattening of the nose, might still be clearly
distinguished. All the statues and bas-reliefs of the
queen attribute to her a prominent mouth and an
Queen Tiyi.
»« page 294.
THE TOMB OF QUEEN TIYI 295
enormous chin. She had inherited those features from
her mother, Queen Touiyou : a visit to the museum at
Cairo sufficiently proves the fact. That she had also
transmitted these features to her son Khouniatonou was
proved beyond doubt by the corpse lying at our feet.
The comparison of his profile with that of the woman
represented in the panels guaranteed that he sprang
from the same branch. The type is frequently found
among the wandering tribes between the Nile and the
Red Sea. If we may judge by appearances we should
be justified in supposing that the queen could claim
descent, on the maternal side at least, from the ancient
Bicharis.
Thieves would certainly not have failed to carry away
the gold-leaf, and the mere fact that it still remained in
the tomb formed an incontestable proof that it had not
been violated. But what had become of the funerary
equipment which would have corresponded to so much
personal wealth ? In her parents' tomb, two years ago,
varied possessions were found, arm-chairs, jewel-chests,
sandals, statuettes, models of perfume-pots, beds,
bolsters, and bundles of dried provisions; a collection
numerous enough to fill a whole room in cur museum.
Neither pictures nor inscriptions were to be found on
their walls, but all the necessaries of life which would
enable them to exist in comfort in the other world were
there in profusion. The queen's tomb was as bare as
their own. The partitions were warped and roughly
washed with lime, the niche hollowed out awry on the
right side, the ceiling cracked and crumbling, and on
the ground was the ritual layer of sand. Several earthen
pots were scattered about, two or three pretty alabaster
horns were placed behind the head, and a dozen amu-
lets of various sorts between the panels. Altogether
nearly a hundred articles of slight value were gathered
together. Some of them were gifts from Amenothes III,
296 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
and had been used on the queen's toilet table : a mala-
chite kohol bottle, cracked and without the neck, a phial
of polished hematite, and a sort of goblet in green breccia.
No longer of any use to the living, they were consigned
to the companionship of the dead. This was quite in
accordance with the usual Egyptian custom of temper-
ing necessary economy with the unbounded extravagance
demanded by true piety. After that, no one will be
surprised to learn that the rest of the objects consisted
of microscopic models of furniture and domestic utensils.
Linen-chests in green enamel two or three inches long,
miniature boomerangs, knives, mallets, and cups, helped
to form a collection of doll's furniture, both amusing and
puerile, which provided the doubles^ with the equivalent
of their earthly possessions. It made no appreciable
difference to the dead, and certainly was less expensive
for the living. The four canopic urns were placed to-
gether in an alcove on the west, and were made of
alabaster and each surmounted by a woman's head,
which was immediately recognized as a portrait of the
queen — or possibly of the king — not aged as she was at
her death, but in the full vigour of life. She was repre-
sented with a heavy wig, and without the royal urseus
of gilded bronze which she generally wore on the
forehead. One of them had a broken nose, crushed
probably in some scrimmage. They were evidently the
work of a master, and gave the impression of an excellent
likeness to the original ; the face was long and spare in
outline, the eyes slanting slightly towards the temple,
the cheeks thin, and the nose straight and narrow. The
mouth was firm and the chin determined in form, while
the expression of the whole face was obstinate and
almost cruel. They were certainly marvellous speci-
mens of sculpture, and if they are authentic portraits of
the queen, we can easily realize her strong influence over
the good-natured Amenoth^s III, and understand how
THE TOMB OF QUEEN TtYI 297
the daughter of a poor priest became queen of all
Egypt.
The contrast is so strong between her position and the
sparsity of her burial trousseau, that we are compelled
to wonder if Mr. Davis has really discovered the original
tomb. I, personally, had my doubts the moment I went
down. She died before her son, and the splendour of
her coffin shows that she received the pomp and cere-
mony due to the mother of a reigning monarch. It is
probable that she had at Thebes, or possibly at El-
Amarna, a tomb worthy of her rank. Ten years after
her death, when reaction triumphed and the second or
third successor of Khouniatonou restored the worship
of Amon, it had been necessary to move the mummy
beyond the reach of the hatred of the Theban priests.
It had been taken away secretly on the sledge used at
the original ceremony, with the image of the accursed
king carefully effaced from the surface. The four canopic
urns, which ensured the perpetuity of the double^ were
not forgotten. A few trifling objects were also carried
away, but the bulk of the equipment was left in the tomb
she then abandoned. The removal, rapidly effected
without knowledge of the people, was probably care-
lessly conducted. We are certain that a mistake may
have been made, and the remains of some other
member of the family confounded with those of the
queen. Dr. Elliot Smith made a careful examination
of the skull in our museum, and came to the conclusion
it was that of a young man of not more than five-and-
twenty. It could not be Khouniatonou, as he died at a
more mature age, but it might possibly have been one
of his sons-in-law, probably he who reigned for a few
months under the title of Saanakhouitou. We cannot
answer for the truth of this hypothesis, but the facts
observed by Mr. Davis on his entrance into the tomb
testify that the Egyptians who conducted the ceremony
298 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
were evidently under the impression they were burying
a queen, and most certainly the Queen Tiyi. They
placed a woman's head-dress on her head, arranged the
canopic urns — hers or those of the king ? — in the niche,
and pushed the coffin back int(5 a corner. They
scattered the toilet articles and miniature possessions
on the sand, and closed up the passage with a pile of
ashlars. When the last portions of the sledge were
brought in, the entrance had already become so narrow
that a false step had knocked down some of the
stones into the vault. They did not trouble to rectify
the mischief, but left the panels lying on the top of the
pile. Then they walled up the door and filled in the
pit. The hiding-place had been so happily chosen that
Queen Tiyi, or her involuntary impersonator, was left
undisturbed for more than three thousand years.
i
XLII
THE PURPOSE OF THE WOODEN TOYS FOUND IN
EGYPTIAN TOMBS
The excavations carried on for nearly four years at
Sakkarah by the Service des Antiquites have not been
much talked about. It is well known that with the
method employed the proceedings are slow in execution,
and yield, at first, but indifferent results. At any district
under process of investigation, whether at Ramesseum,
Karnak, or Edfou, we do not limit our aspirations merely
to digging sundry holes in the earth, in the hope that
chance may reveal some historic document or specimen
for our museum. We desire, on the contrary, to ex-
amine thoroughly the sites of our operations, to protect
them from any return of falling debriSj to consolidate
them as far as possible, and to make them accessible to
the public. It is also desired by means of wise restric-
tions to ensure a lasting preservation for the monuments
that have been revealed to us, so that when we have
fully rejoiced over their discovery, they may be exposed
for centuries to the admiration, or at least to the curiosity
of future generations.
In spite of the thick sand-bed found on the east side
of the plain betw^een the Greek Serapeum and the Pyra-
mid of Teti, certain indications inclined us to suspect
the presence of the tomb of some Heracleopolitan king.
The prospect of possibly bringing to light the relics of
a Dynasty so far almost unknown, decided us to concen-
trate our efforts on that end. After ten months of cart-
ing away of rubbish and of unprofitable excavations, our
299
300 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
perseverance was rewarded at the place we expected.
Quibell, inspector-in-chief of the district, was present
at the time of the discovery of the relics and saw them
brought to the light of day; they were the remains of
Greek, Roman, Copt, and Byzantine sepulchres, rifled
by ancient robbers and ransacked by Arabs in search of
treasure, but representing, nevertheless, a remarkable
collection of mummies and inscriptions.
The tomb of Marouker6s was found there, and the
officers of his court had grouped their tombs round his.
While waiting for the construction of a passage leading
to the king's tomb, we examined the tombs of his
courtiers, and judging from their appearance he must
have been a poverty-stricken and most ill-paying master.
Two of the best-provided tombs were situated against an
enormous mastaba in white stone of imposing style,
which, bearing the seal of an earlier date, was evidently
not of their original property; it had been appropriated
to their uses regardless of the curses supposed to
descend on the violators of sepulchres. The rest of the
court were contented with a simple pit, and a narrow
vault without pictures or legends, and walls bare of any
decoration except a stela on the false door engraved
with their names and titles and the usual inscriptions.
The only luxury perceptible, if luxury it could be called,
was to be found on the mummies' coffins, or in the burial
outfits. Although the mummies wore as usual the painted
mask, reported to have been moulded on the features of
the living, the wrappings were carelessly bound and
made of coarse linen, torn and much stained. The body
lay generally on the left side, with the head and neck
fitted into the stone or wooden pillow, and the sandals,
walking-stick, and weapons of war placed alongside the
back or thighs. The coffin was rectangular in shape,
and made of wood from Syria or Caramania, and inno-
cent of inscription on the outer side. On the top was the
WOODEN TOYS IN EGYPTIAN TOMBS 301
door with two open eyes through which the double is
supposed to observe the exterior world. The surface was
covered with figures or reHgious inscriptions, the objects
belonging to the burial outfit were drawn on it in their
ritual order, and long orations were traced there with
black ink in running hieroglyphics.
Some centuries before, under the reign of the kings
who built the great pyramids, few inscriptions were to
be found in the vault near the sarcophagus. All the
pictures of domestic and agricultural life, the instances
of sacrifice and the enumerations of offerings together
with the prayers, were reserved for the chapel where the
ancestor received his descendants, and the priests of his
creed. Later, however, the rulers of the Vth and Vlth
Dynasties, disliking the bareness of their chamber, had
introduced, sparsely at first, and afterwards with ostenta-
tious profusion, chapters or even whole books, which were
to ensure, while the owner read them, a future of ever-
lasting happiness. The custom became general among
the nobles, and then penetrated to the middle classes,
and to many kinds of persons in whom the desire for a
future existence was not less active than among the
wealthy, but whose circumstances forbade the building
of a tomb decorated with pictures and prayers. All their
supplications had to be represented on the coffin, which
was covered with incantations. The personages figur-
ing on the bas-reliefs were transposed into dolls of
painted wood, and grouped on the lid of the coffin, they
acted the scenes that had been represented on the walls
of more ancient tombs.
The toys found by Quibell among the Heracleo-
politan remains are, if not the prettiest imaginable, some
of the quaintest and most varied. If we do not look too
closely, the case in which they are exhibited would not
disgrace the window of a toy-shop on Christmas Eve.
Unfortunately, on closer inspection, it could be seen that
302 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
they had been almost entirely demolished by the white
ant, formerly found at Sakkarah. The inside of some of
the pieces had been so eaten away, that they crumbled
into dust at the slightest touch, others were mere
fragments, while the few that remain intact owe their
good appearance to some preservative with which they
have been saturated. I cannot vouch for their dura-
bility, but as long as they last they will not fail to give
pleasure to our visitors, to adults even more than to
children. One of the most interesting represents a
middle-class kitchen of fifty centuries ago. It is shut
off from the street by a low wall with a rustic gate near
the corner. Square in area, it is divided into almost
equal portions. A little yard is in front, and the shed
is open so that what is going on inside is exposed to
view. The roof is flat and forms a terrace; it is sup-
ported by two wooden columns with the capitals in the
form of a lotus bud. The shed is arranged as a store-
house, with the stoves and recesses at the back, and some
large jars placed here and there. In the front are several
receptacles for corn, barley, oil, wine, and water. Three
men are busy in the yard killing an ox. The beast lies
on its side, and while one man cuts its throat, the other
holds a bowl to catch the blood. By the side of the
butchers, and right in the doorway, a cook squats on the
floor roasting a goose over a brazier. He fans the flames
with one hand and turns the bird on the spit with the
other.
It is a festive occasion, but we do not assist at the
banquet, we are only present at the concert, which always
followed the feast. The master, in miniature, is seen
seated on a sort of throne, and a little in front of him a
girl with correct draperies sits on a chair at his right.
On each side two harpists are playing, and three female
musicians squat in front of the group singing and clap-
ping their hands. The dancing girls needed to complete
WOODEN TOYS IN EGYPTIAN TOMBS 303
the programme are doubtless to be found in some neigh-
bouring tomb. Our hero had to be content with a simple
vocal and instrumental concert. While he "spends a
happy day," his servants are seen toiling in his service.
Joiners are sawing beams to shape into furniture and
planing the panels for a wooden box. Potters model
his household utensils and bake them in the furnace. A
procession of yellow-skinned women file past, flanked
on each side by a small, dark-coloured boy, bearing the
products of their master's eternal domains. Two boats
are equipped, and wait his pleasure to go out on the river.
One has the mast stepped and a sail hoisted ready to
run against the stream with the light north wind. The
other carried lowered sails, as if ready to go with the
current, and three rowers are stationed on either side.
They are most delightful toys, for which our children
would be willing to exchange their whole collection of tin
soldiers and india-rubber animals.
For the dead, however, they were not meant to serve
the purpose of playthings. I do not know if Kanouni
and others of his companions, whose property we have
appropriated, ever wondered in their youth what would
be their fate after death when they lay alone in their
coffins in the midst of their miniature possessions. If
the rites celebrated over the corpse did not possess the
power attributed to them by religion their life beyond the
grave would be intense darkness and endless night, the
dense, heavy western darkness in which we turn from
side to side in half-conscious sleep. Were they actually
sovereigns ? Could the way in which they would act be
imagined ? The mummy was taken down to the vault
and placed with his face to the east in the coffin at the
end of the chamber. The lid was sealed to the murmur
of sacred words. The boats, the peasants bearing offer-
ings, tradesmen, the musicians, the slaves, the house-
hold stand in a crowd around. The entrance is then
304 NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT EGYPT
barricaded with a wall that no living hand will again
disturb. The workmen return to the surface, and the
echo of their voices grows fainter, and then dies away.
A rumbling sound is heard, the crash of the stones
and sand as they fall into the pit. A few moments
more and the "soul" will lie buried under the weight
of 1 20 to 160 feet of debris and be lost in the silence of
the tomb. Is it for ever? Will the miracles of which
the priests have so often spoken come to pass? The
believer never doubts that light will burn in answer to
his prayer, and that life will be perpetuated beyond
the tomb. Human beings and inanimate things would
grow to their accustomed size. The pitchers and chests
would be filled. The workmen would hurry to their
labour, the ox would continue to fall under the butcher's
knife, and the goose be carefully basted, and roasted to
a turn. Action once started could never cease. By
virtue of incantations each act would be indefinitely re-
newed, the ox and the goose would live again under the
servants' care, the supply of fresh water, oils, and
delicately-flavoured wines would never fail, neither would
the song of the harpist nor the wiles of the favourite
slave.
If these are only material joys, and if it seems that in
their preparations for future happiness the Egyptians
might have imagined pleasures of a more ideal character,
it must be remembered that the political constitution of
their country made the owners of these magic dolls in
their lifetime whether noble, government official, mer-
chant or soldier, subject to those who were wealthier or
more powerful than themselves. Their ideal on earth
was to possess a home, land, slaves, and concubines, for
whom they were indebted to none but themselves. The
tomb with its little painted dolls procured the Egyptians
a paradise in which their dreams were realized.
It was within the reach of the most humble. The
WOODEN TOYS IN EGYPTIAN TOMBS 305
works need not come from the hand of a great artist,
four pieces of painted wood simulated a house suitable
enough for the purpose, and the figures only resembled
the chetk-el-beled at a long distance. During the early
periods of Egyptian civilization, the right to a future
life could only be claimed by the extremely wealthy.
The lives of many women, children, slaves, and animals
had to be sacrificed to accompany the double into the other
world. The descendants, overcome with grief, but chary
of the cost, substituted for these expensive victims
statues representing each of them at his craft, the woman
grinding the corn, the baker at his kneading-trough, the
cellarer sealing up his wine jars, the mourner beating
his forehead and cutting his face. Although this sub-
stitution assured a great reduction of expense, few of the
nobles were in a position to afford the fees demanded by
the sculptor, and a further concession was granted by the
application of bas-reliefs and painted panels on the walls
of the chapel, and thus the future life was made possible
for a larger number of persons. The cost of execution
was still heavy, however, and in order that the privilege
might be further extended, the painted scenes descended
from the walls, and were made in common wood, in
small size, at a small cost. It is obvious that the more
wealthy or more cautious would use both methods.
Many maslabas and hypogeums have their bas-reliefs in
the chapel and their dolls in the vault. If any harm hap-
pened to the first, the others might escape destruction
and continue to serve the master. For centuries, how-
ever, the majority kept to the dolls, and owed to them
the hope and consolation of their old age. Economic
evolution here determined religious evolution. The
desire to escape annihilation after death lowered the
price of the future life, and created a cheap immortality.
30
INDEX
Abdashirta, 6
Abel, M., 2
Abousir, 211, 212, 283
Abousir, necropolis of, 278
Abousir, Temple of, 279, 281
Abraham, 169
Abydos, 29, 30, 31, 41, 7o, 99,
122, 125, 126, 205, 208
Academy of Inscriptions, 40
Accho, 6, 47
Achaeans, the, 51
Achaemenidae, 85
Acropolis, the Susian, 7, 10
Adad, 149
Adonai, 120
Adonis, 65
JEgean Sea, 51, 55, 62, 240
Agrippa^ the (of French sorcerers),
119
Ahhotpou, Queen, 83
Ahmasis, 170, 172
Ahmosis, Princess, 80, 83
Ai, Prince, 68, 72
Alasia, kings of, 3
Alexander the Great, 10, 120, 165,
175, 248, 249, 252
Alexandria, 84, 87, 88, 99, 215
Amami, 15, 16, 20
Amasis, 85
Amelineau, 125
Amenemhait I, 99
Amenemhait III, 74
Amenophis, 191
Amenophis, the potter, 229
Amenothes, 191
Amenothes I, 83
Amenothes II, 274, 275, 276, 277
Amenothes III, 3, 4, 65, 67, 71,
73, 81, 92, 182, 189, 195, 222,
223, 225, 241, 244, 295, 296
Amenothes IV, 2, 3, 6, 49, 64, 65,
67, Ti, 74, 241
Amenothes, son of Hapoui, 182,222
Amenothes or Amenophis, son of
Paapis, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195
Amentit, 25
Ammon, oasis of, 248-253
Ammon, oracle of, 251
Ammon, the god, 248, 249
Amon, 30, 32, 38, 65, 72, 76, IT,
79,82,85,92, 100,119,144, 149,
152, 185, 189,193,194,213,215,
216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 273, 297
Amonmosou, 151, 152, 153
Amonrd, 47, 64, 80, 146, 219, 250,
252
Amorrhea, 42
Amorrheans, the, 94
Anastasi, 228
Anatiou, 76
Anou, the, 206
Anthesteria, 236, 237, 238, 239
Anthest^rion, 236, 237, 239
Antinoe, 106, 107
Antinous, 103-108
Antistius Asiaticus, 102
Antony, 84
Antouf V, 99, 100
Anubis, 25, 119, 152, 184, 238
Aphroditespolis the Little, 29
31
Apion, 175
Apis, 173, 174, 206, 209, 210, 213
Apollo, 135
Apoui, the prophet, 228-233
Apour,45
Apouriou, the, 94
Apries, 170, 172, 174
Arabia, 98, 160
Arabian Nights, the, 158, 187
Arabs, the, 10, 14, 40
Arad, 47
Archipelago, the, 48, 62, 240
Argolis, 56
Arsaphes, 40
Asarhaddon, 149
307
3o8
INDEX
Ascalon, 47, 93, 94, 96
Ascalonians, the, 96
Ashirou, 222
Asi (Cyprus), 48
Asia, 170
Asia Minor, 55, 62
Askalani, 96
Assasif, 24, 292
Assi, 18, 19, 20
Assouan, 12, 13, 219
Assourbanabal, 149
Assyria, 8,10,42,51,73, 149,235,290
Assyrians, the, 135, 172, 234, 289
Athotis, 203
Athribis, 189
Athyr, 130, 132, 134
Atonou, 65, 72, 73
Atoui, yS
Atoumou, 66
Attica, 56
Augustus, 84, 88, 89, 90
Avalis, 77
Avar is, 191
Ayrton, 246
Baal, 120
Bab-el- Mandeb, 55, 77
Babylon, 2, 7, 44, 171
Babylon, kings of, 3, 4
Babylonia, 8, 11
Bacchis, 209, 213
Bakhtan, 147
B alias, 122
Baraize, M., 273
Barberini obelisk, 103
Bastit, 36, 213
Bedouins, the, 98, 125, 231
Beni-Hassan, 153
Berber dialect, 249
Berbers, the, 17
Berenicia, 102
Berlin, 266
Berosus, 234
Berytes, 6
Bezold, 2
Biban-el-Molouk, 292
Bible, the, 169, 171
Bicharis, the, 295
Birch, 107
Bisou, 18, 262
Bissing, Friedrich Wilhelm von,
256, 257, 258, 259, 278, 283
Black Sea, the, 48
Bocchoris, 170
Boethos, 204
" Book of the Dead," 61, 137-143,
275
Borchardt, 278, 279, 281
Boresis, 87
Bos Africanus^ the, 210
Bothor, 172
Boucolion, the, 237, 239
Boulak Museum, 20
Bouriant, 12
Boursin, 204
Bouto, oracle of, 251
British Museum, 116, 128, 139,
182, 215
Brugsch, Emile, 182, 261
Budge, 2
Byblos, 6, 47
Caesar, 81, 87
Cairo, 246, 272, 273, 285, 286
Cairo Mission, 23, 26
Cairo Museum, 21, 182, 246, 261,
273, 276
Caius Fulvius Quietus, 102
California, University of, 266
Caligula, 97
Cambyses, 171, 172, 173, i74, i75
Campus Martins, the, 107
Canaan, 6, 42, 93
Caramania, 300
Carter, Mr., 241, 242, 261
Carthage, 62, 120
Carthaginians, the, 48
Castrum Puellarum^ 47
Celeus, 57
Chabas, 94
Chaldaea, 8, 44, 45, 5i» 73, 95, 116,
149, 202, 204, 240, 290
Chaldaeans, the, 135, 234, 289
Champollion, 103, 142, 167
" Chanson de Roland," 168
Charlemagne, 152
Cheikh-abd-el Gournah, 24, 25
Cheikh-el-beled^ 178, 305
Cheops, 37, 122, 126, 153, 170,
171, 205
Chephren, 37, 122, 170, 178, 205
China, 99
Christian Apologists, the, 53
Cicero, language of, 104
INDEX
309
Cilicia, 42
Cleopatra, 81, 84, 86, Sy
Cneius, 84, 87
Coelo-Syria, 6
Colossi of Memnon, the, 189
Connaught, Duke of, 242
Copt monks, 24
Coptos, 70, 87, 97-102
Copts, the, 40, 171
Cora, 57, 60
Crete, 48, 240
Cyprus, 48, 51, 55, 120
Cyrene, 251
Cyreneans, the, 251
Cyrus, II
Dahchour, 288
Damas, 94
Damascus, 6, 44, 47
Danga^ 18, 19, 20
Daraou, 151
Darius, 11
Dar-risi, 15
Dasdes, Lake of, 200, 201
Davis, Theodore, 241, 242, 244,
246, 291, 292, 297
Deir-Ballas, 266, 268
Deir El-Bahari, 22, 35, 40, 49, 75,
1% 83, 99, 146, 272, 292
Deir el Medineh, 193
Demeter, 54, 56, 57, 60, 238
De Morgan, 12
Denderah, 41, 176, 178, 180
Denon, 89
Derr, 14
Desaix, 89
Didoufhor, 191
Dieulafoy, M. and Mme., i, 6, 7,
8,10,11
Dimaskou (Damascus), 47
Diocletian, 97, 99
Dion Cassius, 88
Dionysus, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238,
239
Diospolis the Great, 87
Disk of the Sun, 65, 66, 68, 72
Djarboub, 249
Dolikhe, 47
Domitian, 102
Dorians, the, 251
Dorpfeld, 278
Doudou, tomb of, 49
Dour-Banat, 47
Duguesclin, 139
Dujardin, M., 6
Ebers, 267, 268, 269
Ecole des H antes Etudes^ 228
Edfou, 41, 150, 299
Edfou, Temple of, 242
Edgar, Mr., 285
Egypt Exploration Fund, 33, 272
Elam, 8
El-Amarna, i, 2, 5, 49, 64, 66, 70,
71, 74, 224, 293, 297
El-Amarna, tombs of, 226
Elamites, the, 135
Elephant river, 'j']
Elephantine, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
21, 178
Eleusinian Mysteries, the, 53-62,
234
Eleusis, 54, 57, 61, 237
El-Kab, 178
Eloai, 120
Ennead, the Theban, 252
Erman, A., 103, 104, 107, 109, 197,
200, 201, 217
Erment, 81, 213
Eros, 263
Erythraea, the, 98
Esneh, 151, 208
Etearchos, 251
Ethiopia, 69, ^T^ lor, 116, 153,
184, 185, 186, 192, 222
Euboleus, 57, 59
Eucles, 59
Euphrates, 8, 44, 47, 204
Exodus, Book of, 94, 96, 169, 192
Fayoum, 40, 74
Festival Hall (of Osorkon), 38
Flinders Petrie, W. M., 64, 67, 69
70, 72, 74, 92, 96, 97, 100, 102,
122, 177, 178, 179, 180
Foucart, P., 54, 56, 62, 238, 239
France, 151, 202
Frejus, 84
Furies, the, 135
Gabou, 252
Gaillard, 210
Gallus, C. Cornelius, 84-90
Ganotmtiou, 72
310
INDEX
Gara, oasis of, 251
Gaul, 120
Gaul, kings of, 172
Gaza, 6, 47, 94
Genesis, Book of, 169
Germany, 202
Gezer, 93, 94, 96
Girgeh, 124
Gizeh, 177, 279
Gizeh Museum, 178
Gizeh, pyramids of, 88, 126
Goodwin, 157
Goshen, land of, 35
Gournah, 292
Goumeh-Mourrai, 24
Great Oasis, the, 30
Gr^baut, 221
Greece, 48, 50, 52, 54, 55, 1 16, 235,
239, 251, 277
Greeks, the, loi, 135, 160, 165,
182, 289
Griffith, F. LI., 72, 182, 183, 188
Groff, 117, 121
Guardafui, Cape, 77
Hades, domains of, 57, 58, 59,61,
105, no. III, 112, 114, 124
Hades, queen of, 59
Hadrian, 103, 104, 106, 107
Hakem, mosques of, 280
Hakoris, 251
Hal^vy, 2
Hamath, 47
Hipounimait, 125
Harmakhis, 185
Harmhabi, 29
Harris Papyrus, 215, 217, 218,
220
Hathor, 177, 193, 213, 272, 273,
274, 275, 277
Hatshopsouitou, Queen, 41, 76, 77,
79, 81, 145, 241
Hearst Papyrus, 266, 269
Hebrews, the, 94, 95, 169, 192
Hebron, 96
Heliogabalus, 107
Heliopolis, 65, 66, 210, 216
Hellas, Cities of, 7, 55
Hellenes, the, 52
Henassieh, 34, 35, 39
Heracleopolis Magna, 34, 39, 40
Hermes, igi, 237
Hermopolis, 64, 71, 73, 79, 105,
106, 107, 186
Herodotus, 35, 36, 38, 164, 170,
171, 188, 212, 214, 251
Heroopolis, 35
Hesiod, 135
Hierapolis, 102
Hieroglyphics, pronunciation of,
163-168
Hircus mambricus^ the, 212
Hirkhouf, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21
Hittites, the, 46, 94, 172
Homer, 168
Hophra, 172
Horou-douni, 125
Horus, 80, Id, 104, 123, 124, 125,
157, 194, 201, 204, 206, 225, 238,
252
Horus, Eye of, 133
Horus, son of the Negress, 186,
187
Horus, son of Panashi, 186, 187
Horus-Sit, 125
Houiya, 68
Huelsen, 107
lalou, 137
lanouimim, 93, 96
Ilim, the, 77
Imouthes, 191
India, 98
louiya, 241, 244, 246
Iran, tableland of, 8
Iritit, 14, 15, 16
Ishtar of Arbeles, 149
Israel, 91, 95, 96
Israilou, 93, 95
Isis, 54, 56, 60, 102, 192, 200, 238
Italy, 51, 62
Jacob, 94
Jao, 120
Jerablous, 102
Jerusalem, 6, 44, 47
Jesus, 120
Jezreel, plains of, 96
Joel, 120
John, 120
John of Nikiou, 175
Joppa, 47, 94
Joseph, 94, 96, 169, 171
INDEX
311
Josephus, 175
Judaea, 116
Judah, mountains of, 96
Kadesh-Barnea, 96
Kaininou, 100
Kanouni, 303
Karchemis, 47
Karnak, Temple of, 30, 64, 79, 80,
92, 146, 189, 193, 194, 299
Kasr-es-Sayad, 178
Kemnikai, 257
Keneh, 99
Keramike, 87
Khabakhel^ 120
Khaloupou-Alep, 47
Khamhait, 71
Khimois, 182, 190
Kharou, 93
Khartoum, 21
Kha-sakhmoui, 125, 126
Khatis, the, 6, 91, 93
Khnoumou, 229
Khoiak, 130, 132, 135
Khonsou, Temple of, 146, 147,
193
Khontamentit, 61
Khopri, 66
Khouit-Atonou, 66, 71
Khouniatonou, 66, 67, 69, 72, 226,
293, 294, 295, 297
Kihak, month of, 238
Knouriphariza^ 120
Kom-Ombo, 208
Kous, 99
Lamartine, 167
Lange, H. O., 228
Lauth, 228
Lazarus, parable of, 188
Legrain, 189
Leipzig, 266
Lepsius, 63, 255
Leyden Museum, 116, 228
Libya, 44
Libyan desert, 16, 17, 151, 206, 275
Libyan mountains, 30, 222, 275
Libyans, the, 14, 92, 231, 250
Limnae, sanctuary of, 237
London, 266
Lortet, Dr., 209, 210, 211,212, 214,
274
Louvre, the, 6, 178, 259, 285
Louxor, 41, 81, 99, 118, 222, 273,
292
Lycopolis, 263
Lyons, Captain, 84
Macedonians, the, 85, 98
Macrian, 102
Mageddo, 45, 47, 94
Magna Graecia, 61
Maiharpiriou, tomb of, 244
Mikhir, 15
Malao, Tj
Malvezzi, 246
Manakhphres Siamon, 185, 186
Manazit, 281, 282
Manetho, 191, 192, 203, 234
Mankhopirriya, 29
Manou, 124, 125
Manouna, 91
Maout, 193, 252
Marcus Aurelius Beliakob, 102
Mariette, 36, 75, 76, 80, 151, 272
Maririya, 68
Marisonkhis, 152
Marouker^s, tomb of, 300
Massaouah, 'j'j
Max Miiller, W., 43, 52, 157
Mazaiou, 14
Mazit^ 140
Mechir, 134
Medes, the, 173
Medicine, Egyptian, 267-271
Medinet-Habou, 221, 227, 290
Mediterranean, the, 48, 51, 80,
209, 251
Mehemet Ali, 1 5 1
Mehitouoskhit, Princess, 183, 185
Mekhou, 14, 16
Mellaoni, 63
Memphis, 2, 25, 34, 66, 70, 73, 84,
85, 91,92,98, 153, 154, 159, 178,
179, 180, 183, 203,209,210,212,
213, 216, 255, 258, 259, 273
Memphis, necropolis of, 116
Mendes, 209
Menephtah, 91, 92, 95, 96
Menes, 124, 125, 126, 127, 203,
252
Menou, 151
Meroe, 186
Metesouphis, 20, 21
312
INDEX
Metesouphis I, 14
Meydoum, pyramid of, 151, 279
Miebais, 203
Mikhael, 120
Minhotpou, 100
Minou, 100, 1 01
Minouhait, 100, loi
Mitanni, kings of the, 3, 4, 73
Mnevis, 209, 210, 213
Mohammed Effendi Chaban, 261,
285
Monkhouminou, 100
Montemhait, Queen, 21
Montou, 133
Montouhikhopshouf, hypogeum
of, 31
Montouhotpou V, 272
Morgan, J. de, 122
Moses, 96
Mosyllon, 77
Moundos, 77
Mount Taurus, 2, 3
Mycenae, 290
Mycerinus, 170, 205
Nakhouiti, tomb of, 28
Naousirriya, 281
Napata, loi, 136
Naucratis, 251
Naville, M., 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39,
40, 41, 75, 76, 79, 80, 83, 273
Naville, Madame, 38
Nebuchadnezzar, 171, 172, 173,
174
Nechao, 170
Necho, 85
Nectanebo I, 251
Neferkeres, 203
Negadeh, 122, 124, 126
Negative Confession^ the, 142
Negroes, 231
Nephthys, 200, 238
Newbury, W., 221
Nile, the, 13, 14, 16, 17, 34, 40,
49, 51, 55, 56,62,63,73,81,87,
92, 96, 98, 104, 123, 134, 151,
155, 158, 170,176, 178,203,205,
210, 212, 222, 253, 268, 275, 282,
290, 295
Nile, the Blue, 219
Nineveh, 42
Nineveh, kings of, 3, 149
Nipour, 44
Nirab, 47
Nofirhotpou, 30, 100
Nofirhotpou, tomb of, 28
Nouit, 252
Nubia, 17
Nubian tribes, 16
Old Testament, names in the, 6
Olympias, mother of Alexander
the Great, 248
Onias, 35
Onkhtaoui, 160
Ophiaeon, 87
Orontes, the, 47
Orphic doctrines, 58, 59, 62
Osiris, 19, 26, 56, 60, 61, 105, 127,
137, 140,141,144, 152, 176,184,
185, 187, 192, 194, 200, 213, 232,
234, 236, 238, 245
Osiris, Council of, 143
Osorkon II, 38
Ouagait, 31
Ouaouaitou, the, 14
Ouaouit, 15
Ouat, 134
Ouenephes, 203
Oulai, the, 7
Ounamounou, 251
Ouni, 15
Ourbilloum, 204
Ourima, 47
Ourousalim (Jerusalem), 47, 94
Ousimares, 184, 185, 187
Ousiramonou, 100
Ousirtasen II, 40
Ouzait, the, I33j I34
Oxyrynchus, 117
Pakhons, 134
Palermo Museum, 204
Palermo Stone, the, 207
Palestine, 47, 96
Panoua, 154
Paophi, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135
Parabeni, 246
Parihou, 78
Paris, 266
Parthians, the, 10
PartSfnokhj 120
Pellegrini, 204
Persian architecture, 1 1
INDEX
315
Tiyi, 65, 241, 244
Tiyi, tomb of Queen, 291-298
Tmai-el-Amdid, 285
Tobi, 131, 132
Tonoutir, 77, 78
Touiyou, Queen, 244, 295
Toukh-el-Garmous, 260, 285
Touloun, mosques of, 280
Tounah, 208
Tourah, 191
Toutanoukhamanou, 72
Triacontaschene, 87
Triptolemus, 57
Typhon, 2od, 201, 238
Tyre, 6, 47, 48
Tyrsenes, 51
Tytus, R. de P., 221
Ur,44
Valerianus, 102
Valley of the Kings, 22, 247, 291
Varius Marcellus, 107
Vigna Saccocciy the, 107
Virgil, 84, 168
Wady Toumil^t, 35
Weidenbach, 255
Weigall, Mr., 246
Winckler, M., 2
Zeilah, Bay of, TJ
Zeus, 57
Ziggourai^ the Chaldaean, 280
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